It tendency; yet with a conservative tendency of its own. OF THE TENDENCIES OF THE SPECIAL EMOTIONS OF DESIRE (1). 1. Of the Laws of Hope and Despondency. Hope strengthens desire, but, making the future appear better than the present, is often deceptive; still indispensable. Des- pondency weakens desire; but has this counterbalancing advantage that, by impelling us to desist from the line of action which has led to failure, it leaves us free to attempt some other, to which when hope revives we turn. Hope restores the courage Anxiety, of great service to desire by preventing our yielding to extravagant hopes; by making us cautious and watchful in pursuit of its end; by stimulating desire to further exertions, When the end is certain we no longer need caution and watchfulness, and confidence tends to relax them. Self-confidence a valuable support to desire, so long as it inspires us with courage to attempt difficult ends, and is balanced by doubt and anxiety, pp. 482-487 4. The Tendencies of Disappointment. Disappointment, of service to desire by correcting deceitful hopes and rash confidence; but when excessive and not balanced by opposite emotions, it discourages desire, and excludes hope, Is despair of any service to desire? It evokes courage, energy and strengthened by despair, but extinguished by it, pp. 497-500.— A contrary law, that despair tends to weaken desire; but some desires so strong that they triumph over this influence, thence becoming stronger than they were before, pp. 500-502.-The advantage which these opposite effects of despair have for the That the specific emotions of desire have certain intimate relations 1. Of Joy as interrupting Desire or Ensuing on its Fulfilment. The joy of anticipation, which often follows confidence in an end, interrupts desire for it; so also the joy of retrospect; the joy 2. Of the Joys of Activity and their Relation to Desire. The joys of anticipation, retrospect and attainment, joys of rest in comparison with the joys of activity exhibited in playing at games. That this joy, which appears both to imply and to be compatible with desire, is in reality not compatible with it, 1. Analysis of Impulse, pp. 523-525. 2. Of the Difference between Impulse and Emotion, pp. 526–529. 3. Of the different Functions of Impulse and Emotion, pp. 529–533. 4. Why we should not include the Primary Emotions among the 5. How far Human Instincts have the specific and invariable Character of Animal Instincts, pp. 536-538. 6. Whether all Instincts have distinctive Emotions to support them OF TWO OPPOSITE TENDENCIES OF JOY AND sorrow. 1. Of the Expansive Tendency of Joy, pp. 542, 543. 2. Of the Contracting Tendency of Sorrow, pp. 544-547- 3. Of the Relation of the Expansive Tendency of Joy to the Tendency of Attraction to its Object, pp. 547-550. THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHARACTER INTRODUCTION I WHOEVER will consider the treatises on the science of Mind that have appeared up to recent times, will be able to judge how much or how little they have accomplished toward the foundation of a science of Character. The processes of perception and thought, of feeling and will, have been detached from the forces of character at their base. We have what purports to be a science of these processes; while that which alone directs and organises them is left out of account as if it had no importance. Yet we find in the text-books a small and subordinate place allotted to the emotions which, rightly conceived, are among these forces; but too often, as William James complained in his time, they are treated in such a way as to deprive them of the living interest which they have in the drama and the novel. If we are to have a complete science of the mind, this will include a science of character as the most important part of it; and if we are to make any approach to such a science, it would seem that we must begin by a study of the fundamental emotions and of the instincts connected with them. But we have to conceive of the problem as essentially dynamical. The emotions are forces, and we have to study them as such. Our analysis must not be preoccupied by their constituent feelings and sensations, and it is here that they B are little capable of scientific treatment, because these constituents are so elusive and variable,—but must be directed to show what are their main tendencies, what biological value they have at first, and what value for the higher ends of character afterwards. Once we grasp this problem clearly, the other problems of their varying sensations, the degree of bodily disturbance accompanying them, their description and classification, will fall into a proper and subordinate place. As the study of the emotions should be directed in the first place to the discovery and analysis of their tendencies, so this seems to be the only way of advance to the more complicated problems of character; for we cannot attain to any clear conception of how the whole works before we understand how the parts work. The common problems of characterthe problems of the growth and decline of nations; the ennobling and degradation of individuals; the changes through which character passes from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood and old-age,—these are so complicated that they confuse the mind, and we abandon all attempt to solve them, except such as are popular and unscientific. We have then first to investigate the forces at the base of character, and the part they play in the general economy of the mind. The solution of this problem presupposes that we can profitably study the emotions dynamically, and that for this purpose we can sufficiently isolate them from one another and from the character as a whole. It is well for us to understand some of the difficulties of this first and indispensable task. In a strict sense we can never isolate the emotions. Each is bound up with others. Each subsists and works in a mental environment in which it is liable to be interfered with by the rest. Nor do these forces keep themselves, like human beings in the social environment, always distinct. On the contrary, they frequently become blended together, and often what we feel is a confused emotion which we cannot identify. In consequence of this confusion and interference, we are liable to attribute to one emotion tendencies that belong to |