Affective Tendencies 393 
Essentially then the will is nothing else than a true 
and proper affective tendency which checks other affective 
tendencies because it is more far-sighted and which in its 
turn impels to action like all affective tendencies. “There 
is present in the action of will some desire of a good to 
be obtained or of an evil to be shunned, which imparts 
its driving force.’ 46 
Two extreme instances deserve special mention, for 
they include all other cases. The first of these may 
again be divided into two. 
Sometimes one of the affective tendencies is so strong 
and persistent that it constantly outweighs all others; it 
checks them if it is contrary to them and strengthens them 
if itis in harmony with them. Such an “hypertrophied” 
affective tendency is called “passion” (Ribot, Renda). If 
it is directed towards some present aim we say that it 
overthrows the will because it successfully withstands the 
inhibitive effect of every other affective tendency directed 
towards the future; if on the other hand its own aim is 
in the future, an “ideal’’ whose attainment may require 
the work of a lifetime, then we say that the individual 
is persevering, stubborn, unyielding, endowed with an 
iron will, because every other opposed affective tendency 
directed toward an immediate end dashes in vain 
against it. 
On the other hand it sometimes happens that the two 
conflicting affective tendencies are evenly balancd. At 
one moment the far-sighted tendency gains greater force 
and seems to triumph by turning the mind to new conse- 
quences in the future, but the next instant the short- 
sighted tendency discovers new or more clearly recog- 
46Maudsley, The Physiology of Mind, p. 339. London, Mac- 
Millan, 1876. 
