564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



own language, its own tones, its own note, just as it has its own nerve 

 and its own muscle. Physiological analysis, however, is far more 

 difficult here than in the case of the physiognomy. How shall we 

 analyze the complex mechanisms that cause the lungs and the larynx 

 to produce the various sounds of moaning, crying, groaning, sobbing, 

 and sighing ? We are acquainted with the ensemble of muscular func- 

 tions which give rise to these different expressions of the soul's states, 

 but why does laughter express gayety, and sighing express sadness ? 

 We cannot tell. 



To sum up : a profound disturbance of the circulatory and respira- 

 tory acts ; a more or less violent agitation of the members ; changes 

 of the attitude of the body; diversified movements in the physiog- 

 nomy ; infinitely-varied inflections and modulations of the voice — all 

 these phenomena are the consequence of what takes place in the brain 

 when that organ receives impressions of such a nature as to agitate it. 



Hence we see that the main-spring of passion is the sense-impres- 

 sion. But what is this impression ? In order to answer this ques- 

 tion, let us analyze some passional state. We shall there find four 

 principal elements : a more or less distinct initial sensation of pleasure 

 or pain ; voluntary or involuntary movements, more or less pronounced ; 

 and, finally, a recurrent sensation consecutive to these movements. 

 It is clear that if there were no sensation there would be no passion. 

 On the other hand, if the sensation were but a motion, we might say 

 that passion consists of a series of motions originating in the agitation 

 of the sensorium produced by the internal or external causes of emo- 

 tion ; but, then, we never could understand why this agitation, being 

 purely vibratory, should affect us at one time agreeably, at another 

 painfully, or why it should act in so many different modes. Hence 

 the power of discerning, immediately, in the sensorial perception, dif- 

 ferences that have no mechanical equivalent, cannot be explained on 

 mechanical grounds, and it is absolutely necessary to recognize here a 

 psychic faculty, whose function it is to ascertain and to conceive the 

 causes of emotions, and to regulate, according to a certain harmony, 

 the consecutive physiological movements. Passion, therefore, resides 

 in a something that is neither the brain, nor the nerves, nor the mus- 

 cles ; a something which perceives, and joys, and suffers, and which 

 moves the entire body in unison with its own feelings. Now, this 

 conscious faculty, this faculty of perceiving causes in no wise mechani- 

 cal, is the soul. The more deeply we study the physiology of the pas- 

 sions, the more are we convinced that the agitation of the nervous and 

 motor energies is but the external manifestation of deeper causes, 

 which we denominate psychic. So, too, the more we study into mat- 

 ter, the better we see that it is only an external form, a vesture that 

 clothes the activity of an invisible principle. Thus does Science ever 

 lead us back to that eternal and mysterious thing, force, and, beyond 

 force, to spirit. — Mevue des Deux Mondes. 



