Affective Tendencies 395 
state of discharge or activation of the nervous or vital 
energy, and pain to every state of inhibition or suppression 
of it. 
In fact “painful” is every act inhibitive of certain 
nervous activities; “unpleasant” every too perceptible 
change of surrounding conditions which renders impos- 
sible the continuance of the hitherto stationary physio- 
logical state, “agonizing” every sudden and _ violent 
change of environment which brings about the complete 
stoppage or destruction of life in one or another part of 
the organism, and “sad” is the individual when there is 
a general diminution of vital functions within his 
organism. 
Inversely, it is “pleasant” to exercise one’s muscle in 
play and sport; the cessation of a strained condition of 
the soul is a ‘‘relief,” the return to an accustomed environ- 
ment and the resumption of habits is “welcome,” and in 
general full of “joy” and “pleasure” is every state in 
which the organism experiences a greater activity of 
nervous energy.*8 
It is sufficient here to indicate that the theory of the 
mnemonic origin of all affective tendencies which we have 
endeavored to explain and substantiate in this essay, 
offers a new argument in support of the modern psycho- 
logical views with regard to the inmost nature of pleasure 
and pain. For in assigning to these affective tendencies 
the nature of mnemonic accumulations it implies that the 
fundamental principle of affective life can be nothing 
but the tendency to activation inherent in these accumu- 
bf 
48See Ribot, Psych. des sent., Part I, chapters I-III, especially 
pp. 52 f. and 83 £—W. Ostwald, Vorlesungen iiber Naturphilosophie, 
pp. 388 ff. Leipsic, Veit. 1905 
