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GROWTH OF COMMAND OF THE FEELINGS.

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weigh; the method of keeping that impulse at work when once found is likewise the same, with the difference now specified. The treatment adapted for the young restive horse would apply to the beginnings of self-control in the infant. In proportion to the fury of the manifestations to be suppressed must be the spur applied to the germs of counteraction. The difficulties of the case are not to be concealed. That spontaneity, which we count upon for first bringing together in fitting conjunction a feeling and a movement, is favoured by the stillness of the system as regards strong emotion. Being the discharge of surplus power into the various active members, if the system is otherwise drawn upon, it is liable to subside; and without some extraordinary stimulation we cannot hope to call it adequately forth. Still the elements of success in this important endeavour, are within the compass of the organization even at a very early age, and, as in the other departments of volition, the facility grows with time. If we disregard the suffering occasioned by forcing on the development of the link between a suppressive effort and a certain indication backed by pain, we may begin the discipline when we please. After a few abortive trials, the child will fall upon the connexion desired to be established, and will hold by it when driven by suffering and fear. What we want principally to act upon is the fury of the vocal outburst in a child, as being both an evil in itself, and the key of the entire manifestation. Accordingly we apply ourselves to the task of quelling the excitement at this point, and by concentrating the endeavours so, we can very soon. establish a definite link of power with this special region. A certain number of repetitions will enable the child to connect. the impulse of vocal suppression with the cessation of the painful urgency brought to bear upon it; and although it is a hard thing to convert a crude volition into a power able to compete with a violent wave of emotion, yet by the grand instrumentality of acute suffering, the will may be goaded into equality in the contest. The discipline may be commenced on an entirely independent footing, that is, without waiting for any other volitional acquisitions to found it upon.

Or we may delay it until a few links have been established, such as those beginnings in the subjection of the voice to external command made for other purposes. If we suppose the child already familiar with the direction to hush to silence, or if the channel has been formed between certain impressions made on the ear, and a stimulus to the voice, this medium can be had recourse to in reducing a fit of inordinate crying. The intellectual bond being prepared, we need only to supply the proper impulse of the will in sufficient intensity to meet the occasion. There is a certain pitch of pain that will do the work, if pleasure fails. When the child distinctly comprehends the meaning of the term 'silence,' or 'hush,' or 'hold your tongue,' this implies that the way has been laid open to the exact organs to be moved, that the random spontaneity has been reclaimed into a regular road. Then a sufficient degree of volitional prompting will give the needful power. The determination excited to escape from the smartings inflicted will raise a conflict with the fury of the emotion, and may at last gain the day. We cannot but feel a certain relenting pity, in urging the suppressive effort at the early stage of unformed alliance between our indications and the movement intended; when the child, so to speak, has no knowledge of what we require; in other words, when no association has been formed for guiding the course of power into the true channel. We inspire struggles indeed, and energetic movements, but it may be long ere the fitting one is lighted on, and hence an interval of suffering to no purpose. Still, pain is a surprising quickener of the intellectual progress. The coincidence between the cessation. of suffering, and the movement at, that instant, will be an impressive one, and not many such coincidences will be wanted to complete the adhesion for the future. The first lessons in the control of the passionate outbursts are unavoidably severe. Every considerate person naturally tries to probe the reason of a child's giving way to a fit of grief; but when the fury of the outburst is a greater evil than the pain that it helps to soothe, a determined suppression should

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be attempted. It is no doubt a part of the skill in the management of the young, corresponding to the arts of persuasion devised for grown-up men and women, to find the way to operate a diversion of mind from a ruinous course by the easiest possible means. We try first the whole round of motives on the pleasurable side; and among the pains we single out the smallest in the first instance, reserving the others as a last resource.

5. The overcoming of grief, anger, incontinent animal spirits, &c., continues to be a part of the discipline of selfcontrol, and is carried on through the medium of the various motives available in each case. The intellectual bond for giving a right direction to the course of power is very soon completed, and there remains only the application of a volitional spur, strong enough for the emergency. One of the most common difficulties with children of a certain temperament is to restrain laughter; the outburst being made up of involuntary, as well as voluntary, movements, the control is but partial, and occasionally breaks down. The same may be said of a fit of sobbing, which is a mixture of convulsive spasms extending to parts that are not under the government of the will. There is a peculiar interest in studying this whole department of self-restraint from the circumstance that, under it, we can put in evidence the volitional power of the individual character. What is termed 'force of will' is very fairly brought to the test, by a regard to the greater or less facility in suppressing the outbursts of emotion. When one determination of a voluntary kind overbears another of the same kind, as when a man avoids luxurious living for the sake of health, we have no measure of the energy of the will as a whole, but merely a comparison of two species of motives. But when we array the volitional energy in general against the diffusive current of emotion, we obtain a relative measure of the two great departments of mind in their totality. If we find a person exceedingly deficient in the command of his feelings, being under all the ordinary motives that would inspire restraint, we must represent the fact by saying either

that the emotional wave is unusually vehement, or that the volitional link is naturally or habitually feeble. Supposing two individuals equally urged towards the manifestation of feeling, and prompted to repression by the same pain or the same pleasure, the one that succeeded in the work of control when the other failed, would be said to have the higher volitional endowment. A larger share of the cerebral power is shown to flow towards the region of will in the case supposed. The feeble will is one that needs to be worked upon by a more powerful motive; a greater severity of pain, or a greater charm of pleasure, must be had recourse to. This is constantly seen in the government of children, in families and in schools, as well as over mankind at large. There is no fairer criterion to be had in this matter than the control of outward displays of feeling; the only ambiguity attaching to the test is the unequal degrees of the natural diffusive energy of a wave of emotion. Some constitutions flow abundantly towards the diffusive and demonstrative part of our nature, while others predominate in the region of volition proper, whereby they are enabled to suppress the outbursts of feeling by a twofold advantage. A less ambiguous test of genuine volitional power would be to require both the suppression of a given outburst and the assumption of some other in a lively form. A will that can both put down and raise up lively displays of feeling is, undoubtedly, developed in an ascendant degree. If any one moved to intense sorrow, can put on the display of hilarious animal spirits, or, boiling inwardly with rage, maintain a bland and smiling demeanour, if a parent can show righteous indignation to a favourite child-there being at the same time no extraordinary spur in operationwe are bound to pronounce the power of will of a high order. In everyday life we look upon great self-command as regards temper, or any feeling that we know to be strong in an individual, as a test of volitional energy. We shall speedily remark how far this test may be improved by including the command of the thoughts. Instead of dividing volition against itself, as in the case of conflicting determinations, we bring it into

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collision with forces not at all voluntary, that is to say, with the energy put forth in the operations coming under the two other great divisions of the mind.

The habitual state of the emotional expression is a sort of balance between the diffusive force of the wave and the check of the will. The degree permitted to our various manifestations of pain, delight, sorrow, anger, fear, self-esteem, is governed by motives acting through the voluntary organs; hence, in grown human beings living under social usages, the actual display of a feeling is not to be taken as a measure of the genuine promptings of the occasion.

THE MIXED EXPRESSION OF THE FEELINGS.

In considering the Expression of the Feelings (Instincts, § 13), I enumerated the organs of Expression, and adverted to the attitudes taken on by them under the opposite states of pleasure and pain. I showed that the fundamental law-of pleasure coinciding with heightened, and pain with lowered, vitality—would in a great measure account for the smile, the laugh, the shout, the frown, the sob, the wail. But the expression of the feelings in mature years is more various and complicated; we can then trace a number of attitudes resulting from volition, as distinguished from the emotional wave seen in its pristine purity in the infant displays. This is a case where the emotional and the volitional branches of the great first law of Self-Conservation, after growing for some time apart, unite to produce a complex result.

Among the expressive acts and attitudes springing out of volition proper, we may specify, in the first place, those of Self-Protection. An extreme instance is furnished by a combatant in the posture of defence; a posture very expressive, but wholly arising out of the operation of the will, under a particular end. In any apprehended danger, the attitude taken is such as to cover the parts likely to be injured; the hand is raised to protect the head; the body stoops or inclines to one side to be off the line of assault. The act of wincing

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