THE EMOTIONS. 479 



psychical state involved in the acts, is proved by the natural language 

 of the propensities. Fear, when strong, expresses itself in cries, in 

 efforts to escape, in palpitations, in tremblings ; and these are just the 

 manifestations that go along with an actual suffei'ingof the evil feared. 

 The destructive passion is shown in a general tension of the muscular 

 system, in gnashing of teeth and protrusion of the claws, in dilated eyes 

 and nostrils, in growls ; and these are weaker forms of the actions that 

 accompany the killing of prey. To such objective evidences every one 

 can add subjective evidences. Every one can testify that the psychical 

 state called fear consists of mental representations of certain painful 

 results ; and that the one called anger consists of mental representa- 

 tions of the actions and impressions which would occur while inflicting 

 some kind of pain.'' * 



About fear I shall have more to say presently. Mean- 

 while the principle of revival in weakened form of reactions 

 ijiseful in more violent dealings loith the object inspiring the 

 amotion, has found many applications. So slight a symptom 

 as the snarl or sneer, the one-sided uncovering of the upper 

 teeth, is accounted for by Darwin as a survival from the time 

 when our ancestors had large canines, and unfleshed them 

 (as dogs now do) for attack. Similarly the raising of the 

 eyebrows in outward attention, the opening of the mouth 

 in astonishment, come, according to the same author, from 

 the utility of these movements in extreme cases. The raising 

 of the eyebrows goes with the ojiening of the eye for better 

 vision ; the opening of the mouth with the intensest listening, 

 and with the rapid catching of the breath which precedes 

 muscular eftbrt. The distention of the nostrils in anger 

 is interpreted by Spencer as an echo of the way in which 

 our ancestors had to breathe when, during combat, their 

 " mouth was filled up by a part of an antagonist's body 

 that had been seized (!)." The trembling of fear is supposed 

 by Mantegazza to be for the sake of warming the blood(!). 

 The reddening of the face and neck is called by Wundt a 

 compensatory arrangement for relieving the brain of the 

 blood-pressure which the simultaneous excitement of the 

 heart brings with it. The effusion of tears is explained 

 both by this author and by Darwin to be a blood-with- 

 drawing agency of a similar sort. The contraction of the 

 muscles around the eyes, of which the primitive use is to 



* Psychol., § 213. 



