Appetence and Emotion. 387 



human beings, conceptual thoughts and emotions. Never- 

 theless, at any rate so long as we confine ourselves to the 

 perceptual sphere, these processes have their normal fulfil- 

 ments in action, and, if they become sufficiently intense, 

 actually do so fulfil themselves. 



Now, since the emotions with which we are now dealing 

 (we may call them emotions in the perceptual sphere) are 

 stages in the fulfilment of activities (though the activities 

 themselves may be suppressed), it is clear that there may 

 be as many emotional states as there are modes of activity. 

 Hence, no doubt, the extreme difficulty of anything like a 

 satisfactory classification of these emotions, especially 

 when the activities are regarded as a merely extraneous 

 expression. 



Moreover, when certain emotions reach a high pitch of 

 intensity, they may defeat their own object, and give rise, not 

 to definite well-executed motor-activities, but to helpless con- 

 tradictory actions, affections of glandular and other organs, 

 and a general condition of collapse. The emotion of fear, 

 for example, will lead to motor-activities tending to remove 

 a man from the source of danger ; but when it reaches 

 the degree of dread, or its culmination terror, the effects 

 are markedly different. The countenance pales, the lips 

 tremble, the pupils of the eyes become dilated, and there 

 is an uncomfortable sensation about the roots of the hair. 

 The bowels are often strongly affected, the heart palpitates, 

 respiration labours, the secretions of the glands are de- 

 ranged, the mouth becomes dry, and a cold sweat bursts 

 from the skin. The muscles cease to obey the will, and the 

 limbs will scarcely support the weight of the body. Here 

 we have all the effects of a prolonged struggle to escape. 

 Just as such a prolonged struggle will at length produce 

 these motor and other effects accompanied by the emotion 

 of terror ; so, if the emotion of terror be produced directly, 

 these motor and other effects are seen to accompany it. 



Mr. Charles Richardson, the well-known engineer of the 

 Severn Tunnel, has recorded several instances of railway 

 servants and others being so affected by the approach of a 



