The Emotions in their Relation to Instinct. 191 



primary genesis, the sight of the cur on all subsequent 

 occasions will at once call up a re-presentation of the 

 emotional state, a sort of anticipatory foretaste of that 

 ■which may soon be reinforced by a repetition of the actual 

 motor and visceral commotion. No doubt the anticipatory 

 and re-presentative stage of the emotion will be faint and 

 colourless as compared with the presentative effects of the 

 reinforcing backstroke, just as the anticipatory taste which 

 precedes the first mouthful of a ripe peach is faint as com- 

 pared with the taste of the fruit in the mouth : but it must 

 not be neglected ; it serves to distinguish the second, and 

 all subsequent emotional experiences of like kind, from the 

 first, in which alone we have the unmodified facts of primary 

 genesis. Thus our analysis brings us down once more to 

 the distinction between what is congenital and what is 

 acquired through experience, and in this way the study 

 of emotional states is seen to be in close touch with our 

 special subject, habit and instinct. 



"In speaking of the instincts," says Prof. James in the 

 opening paragraph of his chapter on the emotions,* " it has 

 been impossible to keep them separate from the emotional 

 excitements which go with them. Objects of rage, love, fear, 

 etc., not only prompt a man to outward deeds, but provoke 

 characteristic alterations in his attitude and visage, and 

 affect his breathing, circulation, and other organic functions 

 in specific ways. When the outward deeds are inhibited, 

 these latter emotional expressions still remain, and we read 

 the anger in the face, though the blow may not be struck, 

 and the fear betrays itself in voice and colour, though one 

 may suppress all other signs. Instinctive reactions and 

 emotional expressions thus shade imperceptibly into each 

 other. Every object that excites an instinct excites an 

 emotion as well. Emotions, however, fall short of instincts, 

 * " Principles of Psychology," vol. ii. p. 442. 



