290 THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 
independent of natural selection, is, so far as intelligent 
behaviour is concerned, indirectly, if not directly, due to this 
very natural selection of which it is said to be independent. 
Surely, under these circumstances, the hypothesis in question 
may be said to be not only unproven, but altogether un- 
necessary. 
And what is true of those diverse feelings which we group 
under the concepts pleasure and pain respectively, is true also 
of those more complex dispositions which we call emotional— 
using this term in a broad and comprehensive sense. We say 
that in their primary manifestations they are instinctive ; and 
they certainly seem to accompany organic behaviour due to 
co-ordinated reflex actions. But the emotion, as instinctive, is 
a matter only of its first occurrence. In the course of ex- 
perience it enters into conscious situations, the centres of 
interest in which have acquired meaning. 
Take a particular case.* Your dog is dozing on the lawn 
in the sunshine. Suddenly he raises his head, pricks his ears, 
scents the air, looks fixedly at a gap in the hedge, and utters a 
low growl. Place your hand on his shoulder, and you will 
find that his muscles are all a-tremble; on his ribs, and you 
will feel how strongly his heart is beating. Soon the growing 
excitement leads to vigorous action, and he darts through the 
gap. You follow him across the lawn, look over the hedge, 
and see him facing his old enemy, the butcher’s cur. They 
are moving slowly past each other, head down, teeth bared, 
back roughened. You whistle softly. Such a call would 
generally bring him bounding to your feet; but now it is 
apparently unheard, at any rate unheeded. The two dogs 
have a short scuffle, and the cur slinks off. Your dog races 
after him ; and he flees, yelping. The situation is over. Spot 
returns, wagging his short tail, jumps up at you playfully, 
and then lies down again on the grass. But now and then, 
for ten minutes or so, he raises his head and growls softly. 
Let us briefly analyze the dog’s condition and actions, 
reading into them, conjecturally, the accompaniments in 
* From “ Animal Life and Intelligence,” p. 382, 
