AND ANIMAL LIFE. 343 



gratification, but because such are stimuli to that 

 function whose office it is to improve the condition 

 of the blood, and to regulate its distribution, cir- 

 cumstances so important, that every other function, 

 lohether intellectual or organic, operates in extent 

 and correctness, according to the nature and quan- 

 tity of this jiuid. 



CCCCVII. The next class of passions we re- 

 view is that of the depressing. The general ob- 

 servations which I made in speaking of those that 

 excite, concerning the essential qualities of pas- 

 sion, apply with equal force to the present. To 

 illustrate and explain the phenomena of the for- 

 mer, I selected Anger, as presenting extremes in 

 its development, and therefore more likely to be 

 seized by the common observer. To facilitate 

 the accomplishment of the same end, in regard 

 to those that depress, I shall dwell particularly 

 on Fear. 



WHYTT, in treating the subject of passion, re- 

 marks, " The paleness from fear may arise from 

 a different cause, (he had previously spoken of 

 paleness from anger,) viz. a deficiency of the 

 nervous power ; hence, though the small vessels 

 are not affected with any spasm as in anger, yet 

 they are, in a great measure, deprived of their 

 alternate contractions, to which the motion of the 

 blood in them is principally owing." Instead of 

 bringing forward hypotheses of this kind, in sup- 

 port of which we have not the least evidence, I 



