2IO Habit and Instinct. 



CHAPTER X. 



SOME HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF THE PAIRING SEASON. 



If, in accordance with the conclusion reached in the last 

 chapter, the characteristic and differentiating quality of 

 such emotions as fear and anger is to be regarded as due, 

 in primary genesis, to visceral changes affecting the brain 

 through afferent nerves ; the expression of the emotions in 

 characteristic actions and attitudes must be held to be 

 more or less closely associated with the emotions which 

 they indicate. And this association may well be so close 

 and intimate as to lead to the coalescence of the motor 

 and visceral elements into an apparently uniform and 

 homogeneous state of consciousness. An analogy from 

 the phenomena of vision will make this clearer. When 

 we look out across a stretch of country and see a 

 distant object, such as a church spire, the impression 

 of the object, as directly seen at that distance, seems 

 to be homogeneous and simple. But, setting aside any 

 act of judgment by which the matter may be complicated, 

 analysis shows that, in addition to visual sensations due 

 to the stimulation of the retina, there are also motor 

 sensations due to the movements and relative positions 

 of the two eyes and to accommodation within the eye- 

 balls. And it is these motor sensations which give to 

 vision its distance element. But so closely do the 

 retinal and motor elements coalesce in visual impressions, 

 owing to their constant and uniform association, that their 



