MENTAL FUNCTION 409 



degree of excitement; the directing of the conscious attention toward the 

 things causing the feeling (termed the object) ; and a tone of pleasantness 

 or of unpleasantness. Another element of feeling, a necessary conse- 

 sequence of the others named, is an increased self-reference. The 

 excitement means in physiological terms that the activity has increased, 

 and the element of attention directed toward the feeling's object implies 

 only that a new relation has been set up between some object or condi- 

 tion and the mental process as a whole. It is the tone of pleasantness or 

 of unpleasantness and the various combinations of bodily sensations 

 which are the distinctive marks of the feelings and emotions (if we 

 leave out of our consideration now the bodily movements which actuate 

 the sensations). These certainly are the two elements of a feeling most 

 conspicuous to the person at the time, although either element may be 

 always inappreciable in certain feelings and when of low intensity in 

 many feelings. The tone of pleasantness or of unpleasantness (as the 

 ase may be) of a feeling or emotion, however, may be of almost zero 

 intensity. Who could say whether even a violent emotion of anger or of 

 surprise, for example, were pleasant or unpleasant? 



The characteristic sensation-complex (and the affective tone) of the 

 feeling or emotion are usually sufficiently well-marked to be describable. 

 We find developed in man certain fixed sets of bodily "expressive" 

 reactions or movements each of which is more or less characteristic 

 of some emotion. Each expression is accompanied by the particular 

 set of sensations which these movements and strains in the muscles, 

 joints, skin, and glands would inevitably produce in them through the 

 sense-organs (James). On the other hand, most of the feelings and 

 emotions are either distinctly pleasant or unpleasant, and it is by this 

 criterion that they are usually classified. The typical pleasant emotion 

 is joy, while a typical unpleasant one is sorrow or fear. If one observes 

 intelligent dogs, apes, savages, or young children while experiencing 

 such emotions as these it will be obvious what the "expression" of each 

 of these emotions is, and it will be seen that each tends to be physiologi- 

 cally alike in all similar animals. In civilized and cultured men and 

 women, however, these characteristic "expressions" have been hereditarily 

 repressed, and the latter are not to be found under normal conditions in 

 these men therefore in their physiological purity. Even in such constrained 

 animals, however, we can see that joy tends to general expansion and is 

 enacted by the extensor muscles much more than by the flexors. Sorrow, 

 on the contrary, is restricted and condensative, and "expresses" itself 

 more largely by the flexor muscles of the body. The smile and laugh are 

 the characteristic expression of joy, but, on the other hand, tears flow both 

 from sorrow and from an extreme degree of mirth. Technically, this 

 term the "expression" of an emotion is misleading, for the bodily actions 

 are at least as primary as the sensation-feelings accompanying them. 



As for the various different feeling-experiences and sets of actions, 

 the feelings and emotions, they are numberless and unclassifiable. To 

 say that they are of fouror five general sorts, such as sensuous, intellectual, 



