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and their fatigue induces a soothing repose. The exercise of the senses is midway between purely mental activity and bodily exercise. In long-continued acts of attention with the eye, or the ear, the preponderance of pressure is upon the circles of the brain, the muscles engaged being too small in bulk to operate a diversion. The same observation applies to much speaking. All these various modes of exerting the human powers are agreeable within the limits proper to each, and disagreeable when carried beyond those limits.

There is, besides, a satisfaction in attaining the Ends of our active pursuit; the fact of their being ends implies as much. In all voluntary effort, therefore, there is a double influence upon the mind-the influence of the state of activity or exercise, and that of the end, or thing aimed at. The animal roaming for its food, the peasant tilling his ground, experience this two-fold effect. Thus, labour, which is exercise for attaining a gratification, or for the avoidance of an evil, is a complicated or compound situation, and the consequent emotion is likewise compound. The great variety of modes of active exercise on the one hand, and of agreeable effects on the other, lead to a numerous class of composite emotions referable to the region of our activity. When some very congenial exertion on our part produces an effect also very gratifying, the confluence of the two pleasures must needs beget an intense delight. Such happy combinations are not the usual case; either the kind of exercise that delights us most brings little other fruit; or, to attain our favourite ends, we must take up with uninviting labours.

2. The proper pleasure of Power is something beyond mere exertion for ends. It arises on comparing the easy with the difficult performance of operations. When the laboriousness of an operation is of a uniform character, the feelings connected. with it are the two above-mentioned-the pleasure (or pain) of the exercise, and the pleasure of the end. But let us suppose a work at first performed with great pain or difficulty, and afterwards with ease; in that case, the transition from the one state to the other, gives rise to a new feeling, of the

class founded on Relativity or Comparison,-a joyous and hilarious rebound; intense according to the greatness and the suddenness of the change; there being a corresponding depression of mental tone when the course is in the opposite direction, or from ease to difficulty. So, when after a protracted and doubtful struggle, we are victorious, there is an outburst of joyful excitement peculiar to the situation of con

trast.

3. I formerly described this emotion as the consciousness of superior POWER, energy, or might; there being present to the mind some inferior grade to give the comparison. This is the most general way of expressing the numerous and varied aspects of the emotion.

One mode of transition has been quoted-the passing from difficulty to ease in performing the same work, as happens in the growth of the powers, and in the progress of the learner. Every advance in physical strength, skill, or mental accomplishment, is accompanied with a thrill of elation, which is one of the pleasures attending our progress from infancy onwards. The consciousness of self-improvement is grateful and cheering; the decline of our powers is one of the gloomy adjuncts of age.

A second mode of transition is the increased productiveness of the same efforts, as when we obtain better tools, or when we transfer our labours to a more genial soil, or a more bending material. Any circumstance that enables us to obtain a greater return for exertions, besides conferring the enjoyments of greater material abundance, gives the agreeable stimulation of enlarged power. The teacher of a promising pupil enjoys the effect of contrast in the better yield of his labours. To this form of the sentiment belongs also a rise in the position of command.

The third mode of obtaining the requisite transition, is the comparison with others. When we try our strength against an equal, and come off superior, we are elated with the joy of power. The man of superior endowments, as he passes his fellows in the race of life, is the subject of this grateful senti

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ment. The situation of permanent superiority to other men, gives a certain degree of elation, although much less than appears to the looker-on, who rarely allows, in the case of others, for the inexorable subsidence of the emotion in a state of sameness. By every advance in ability or in position, we raise at the same time the standard of comparison, and are no longer elated by the same class of effects. The slave compares himself with his fellow-bondsmen, and rejoices in his points of superiority; becoming a free citizen, he quits the former comparison, and is now affected, only as he can excel his new associates.

4. The physical accompaniments of the emotion of power are well marked, and in full accordance with the general law that connects pleasure with increased vitality. A certain erect and lofty carriage, denoting surplus vigour, is looked upon as the natural consequence, and the fitting demeanour, of superiority to others; while inferiority, dependence, and defeat, are betokened by an attitude of bending or collapse, the too obvious renderings of impaired vital energy. But we must advert to the appearances on a fresh outburst, to judge what the accession of power does to raise the vital forces. At the moment of overcoming a difficulty, of rising a step in the consciousness of might or skill, of defeating a rival, of promotion to command,--the flush of pleasurable elation is represented by a burst of physical energy, as if some tonic or stimulant had been administered. Compare the successful with the unsuccessful man, in a contest, and the difference is not to be mistaken. The physical and the mental tone will be found to rise and fall together. The successful man is invigorated for his next undertaking; the unsuccessful man, in being mentally dispirited, is physically disabled.

There is a specific tendency in the elation of a stroke of power to stimulate the outburst of Laughter. Some forms of the expression rebut the hilarious manifestation as unsuitable or unbecoming; but, throughout the multifarious instances of the wide-spread emotion before us, laughter is found as a ready concomitant. The elation of the spirits accompanying

a stroke of superior energy would seem to ally itself with this special manifestation. When we come to enquire into the feeling of the ludicrous, we shall find the sentiment before us at work under many disguises; and although Hobbes's explanation may not be literally correct, yet he has touched upon the chief point of this much disputed phenomenon. There are a plurality of causes of the hilarious outburst, some purely physical, and the rest mental; among these last the production of a telling effect is one that cannot be disputed. We see it in the glee of children, in the sport of youth, and in the demeanour even of grave old age. Not in physical effects alone, but in everything where a man can achieve a stroke of superiority, in surpassing or discomfiting a rival, is the disposition to laughter apparent. The chuckle of a rogue at a successful piece of knavery is prompted not simply by the acquisition that it brings, but also by the success of the enterprise, as illustrating his superior powers.

The effect of the sudden attainment of power in liberating nervous energy may be brought under the general law of Harmony and Conflict. Difficulty or Impotence is obviously a conflict of the forces; the sudden cessation of which, that is, the attainment of harmony, cannot be otherwise than a redeeming of nervous power.

5. As regards the mode of consciousness of the emotion we are discussing, little need be said except to resume what has already come out in the course of the foregoing paragraphs. We are to regard it as a feeling intensely pleasurable, great both in amount and in degree. It is a pleasure of the elating or intoxicating class, inasmuch as it produces a general rise of tone, a superior mental energy for the time being, and an atmosphere of excitement wherein other pleasures burn brighter. The thrill is apt to persist as a grateful tremor for a considerable time after the actual occasion, and to be readily revived as an ideal satisfaction. The intensity of the hold that it takes of the mind is shown in inspiring the will to pursue objects corresponding to it; such as station, office, or other instrumentality of superior command. Ambition in

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volves the attainment of power as a principal signification; even honour is not a satisfying good unless there attach to it a certain amount of real influence. Thus it is that power may be described as a sentiment born of our active energies, and qualifying them for still higher efforts; as a copious spring of human pleasure, operating on the will, and persisting in the intellect in no ordinary degree; giving a place in the thoughts to everything appertaining to one's own superiority; and largely swaying the convictions. It is an emotion of the first magnitude; the favourable side is shown in laudable efforts to attain bodily and mental efficiency, and to promote the general good; the unfavourable aspects, if fully enumerated, would bring to view many of our most odious vices. Arrogance, insolence, cruelty, tyranny, oppression, persecution, derision, scorn, abuse, contempt, opprobrium, antipathy, excessive interference, and the passion of anger-fall under that black catalogue.

6. Let us now pursue the exemplification of specific forms of the sentiment. When, by the command of animal power, of natural agencies, or of other human beings, a single person can accomplish Large Operations for his own sole behoof, not only has he a greater yield to his activity, but he has also that exalted sense of power and efficiency now described. Having constantly before his eyes the much lower efficiency of the endeavours of the generality of men, he takes his own measure by the comparison, and feels elated by the wider response to all his movements. The proprietor of land and capital, the owner of manufactories, and ships, and warehouses, receives in return for his toil, or perhaps without any toil, a large share of the good things of life; but besides this, he feels himself elevated when he sees the extent of his command, and the multitude of effects resulting from his will. The chief in a business establishment is no less jealous of his position of mastery than of his actual property.

7. Even in the matter of working for those we love, there is room for the supplementary element of superiority. The mother exerting her powers for her children has all the happi