The conception of character that we have gradually unfolded in this first and introductory book, inadequate as it is, has suggested some of the initial problems of a science of character, has furnished us with some tentative laws for our guidance, and has indicated many lines along which further observation and research may be directed. The conclusion that we provisionally adopt is, that there are three principal stages in the development of character. Its foundations are those primary emotional systems, in which the instincts play at first a more important part than the emotions; in them, and as instrumental to their ends, are found the powers of intelligence and will to which the animal attains. But even in animals there is found some inter-organisation of these systems, or, at least, some balance of their instincts, by which these are fitted to work together as a system for the preservation of their offspring and of themselves. This inter-organisation is the basis of those higher and more complex systems which, if not peculiar to man, chiefly characterise him, and which we have called the sentiments; and this is the second stage. But character, if more or less rigid in the animals, is plastic in man: and thus the sentiments come to develop, for their own more perfect organisation, systems of self-control, in which the intellect and will rise to a higher level than is possible at the emotional stage, and give rise to those great qualities of character that we name 'fortitude,' 'patience,'' steadfastness,' ' loyalty,' and many others, and a relative ethics that is in constant interaction with the ethics of the conscience, which is chiefly imposed upon us through social influences. And this is the third and highest stage in the development of character, and the most plastic, so that it is in constant flux in each of us; and the worth that we ascribe to men in a review of their lives, deeper than their outward success or failure, is determined by what they have here accomplished. CHAPTER I INSTINCT AND EMOTION 1. The Meaning to be assigned to the Terms Emotion' IN any attempt to estimate the part which the emotions play as factors of human character, it is important first to distinguish those which are primary, which reappear in the same or in modified forms in the higher systems of the sentiments, and are the source of a number of more complex emotions that we class as 'derivative.' This principal aim determines for us the problems that directly concern us. We have first to analyse the systems of the emotions; to distinguish their impulses and tendencies; to observe the results which they normally accomplish, and seem organised to achieve; and finally to judge from these several considerations whether they are primary or derivative. The results which emotions are fitted to produce can be traced (1) by observation of their behaviour; when foresight of these results is present, (2) by introspection, and in general, (3) by an analysis of their systems. Following upon this problem we have, as everywhere in this work, to attempt to trace some of the laws of these primary forces as those of their action and interaction; for one emotion may either strengthen another or weaken it, may either blend with it into one complex emotion or hold itself distinct. Now, among the root forces of character we must include some of the instincts: for such instincts as 'seizing' and 'walking' would not be called forces of character, although |