IMPULSE, INTEREST, AND EMOTION 243 
underlying causes of the phenomena, which, from the scientific 
point of view, they do no more than name. 
We often say, for example, that interest guides behaviour 
in this direction or in that. But such interest must not be 
regarded as an impelling force ; it is an attribute of the con- 
scious situation, more or less suffused with feeling-tone. It is 
not easy to define; but it seems to take on its distinctive 
character when re-presentative elements contribute what Dr. 
Stout * terms “meaning” to the conscious situation. The 
meaning in the early stages of mental development is, however, 
merely perceptual, and not that which comes much later—that 
which is implied in the phrase “rational significance.” In 
the chick which has tasted a cinnabar caterpillar the situation 
evoked by the sight of this larva has meaning in virtue of 
the actual experience. But, in this case, the meaning is not 
conducive to continued interest, since it checks, rather than 
stimulates, behaviour. At first, indeed, there may be the 
repellent interest of aversion. But this passes by, and the 
larvae are soon ignored. Small worms also acquire meaning, 
and here the interest is attractive, and is stimulated afresh 
each time the meaning is reinforced by repetition of the 
act of seizing and swallowing. 
We have seen that it is through behaviour that things 
become differentiated from their surroundings, and acquire 
relative independence in experience. It is through behaviour 
that what we have termed conscious situations develop. The 
thing is the centre or nucleus of a developing situation—that 
which starts the behaviour, and towards which the behaviour is 
directed ; or, since the behaviour may be that of avoidance or 
escape, we should, perhaps, rather say, it is that to which the 
behaviour has reference. Now, if interest is the feeling-tone 
attaching to the whole attentive situation, and if the nucleus 
of the situation is the thing, it naturally follows that the thing 
becomes the centre of interest. The mouse is a centre of 
absorbing interest to the cat, her eggs to the mother-bird, his 
mate to the sparrow in the spring. Companions are centres 
* “ Manual of Psychology,” p. 84. 
