IMPULSES AND BEHAVIOUR 91 



by the intrusion of self-consciousness. A hungry 

 man will moderate his appetite if he fears that 

 to his companions it will appear so large as to be 

 vulgar. The impulse to dance may be checked 

 by feelings of self-conscious vanity, or be rein- 

 forced by the emotion of love. The virtue of 

 courage may be rooted in self-control : this alone 

 will give us cold-blooded fortitude in the presence 

 of death ; but it may also draw strength from 

 self-abandonment, from cruelty or from self- 

 consciousness. The passion of love becomes an 

 enduring emotion when it is strengthened by the 

 social and kindly impulses. The powerful emotions 

 of pugnacity and love may arouse very remark- 

 able developments of kindness or of cruelty, of 

 aesthetic or of ethical feeling. Conditions of warfare 

 appear to force into flower the artistic talents of 

 a nation : the noblest productions of Greece, 

 the dramatic glories of the Elizabethan era are 

 illustrations in point. Under the influence of 

 love most men become poets. 



Our behaviour upon any occasion will depend 

 upon the impulses which assail us and the im- 

 pulses which prevail. There may be differences 

 in both of these elements, even when the 

 circumstances that stimulate us are precisely 

 similar. For, in the first place, the impulses that 

 are called up by a sensory impression or a recollec- 

 tion depend very largely upon the impulses to 

 which we are subject at the time : if we are under 

 the influence of irritation our reason may fail to 

 control us and a trifling mistake on the part of 

 another will make us positively hate him. We 

 have seen, moreover, that certain impulses gain or 

 lose force with the passage of time : love may 

 lead a man astray after middle life, but not with 

 the blinding authority it exercises over the young. 

 Secondly, similar impressions do not at all 



