CHAPTER VI 
THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 
I.—Imputss, INTEREST, AND EMorIon 
ANY discussion of animal behaviour must deal largely with 
what is termed the conative aspect of consciousness. ‘The 
states designated by such words as craving, longing, yearning, 
endeavour, effort, desire, wish, and will,” says Dr. Stout, in his 
admirable “‘ Manual of Psychology,” * ‘‘ have one characteristic 
incommon. In all of these there is an inherent tendency to 
pass beyond themselves and become something different. This 
tendency is not only a fact, but an experience ; and the peculiar 
mode of being conscious, which constitutes the experience, 
is called conation.” Closely associated with this conation is 
impulse, which Dr. Stout defines as “any conative tendency, 
so far as it operates by its own isolated intensity, apart from 
its relation to a general system of motives. Action on impulse 
is thus contrasted with action which results from reflection and 
deliberation.” | In the interpretation we have advocated, 
animals are essentially creatures of impulse, and not to any 
large extent, if at all, reflective agents. And their impulses 
may be associated either with their inherited and congenital 
behaviour, or with that which is due to acquired experience. 
In other words, their impulses may be divided broadly into 
two classes, the one instinctive, the other acquired. 
Dr. Stout says that conation is not only a fact, but an ex- 
perience. Now, first as to the fact. It seems to be the 
* Page 63. 
t Op. cit., p. 267; ef. supra, p. 138. 
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