of the visual scene, every feature of which probably stirs the infant mind with strong and engrossing emotion. We learn to withstand the volitional impulse that would divert the eyes to a more pleasant point of the scene around us, and to abide by the unattractive object under our hands. Living in a neighbourhood full of objects of beauty, we walk about in nearly total indifference to the charm, excepting in those special moments when we give ourselves permission to dwell upon them.

7. Many of our habits are directed against the primitive or instinctive movements of the body. I have endeavoured to show that the rhythm of the limbs is an original provision of the organization, and also that there is a primitive tendency to community of action throughout the entire system (Instincts, § 5). This last especially demands educational control. We have to suppress those movements of the limbs which instinctively accompany the play of the voice; to resist that inflammatory action whereby a more local excitement kindles a general activity. These acquirements, however, are so much akin to the mere mechanical education already discussed under the Law of Contiguity, that I do not dilate upon them in this place.

8. The subject of the Emotions presents a wide field for the elucidation of the growth of habit. We have had to consider the control and suppression of emotions by voluntary power; an effort rendered more or less easy according as suppression or indulgence is the prevailing fact. The various demands of life are the motives for diverting the emotional currents, and, after a lapse of years, the commencing struggles are modified by the plastic force now under consideration. A few remarks upon the emotions in detail will bring out their distinctive peculiarities, as respects the initiation and formation of habits on their account.

An observation may first be made applicable to emotional culture in general. It is possible, by education, to raise or lower the position of emotion relatively to the two other divisions of the mind. Each person comes into the world with

CULTURE OR SUPPRESSION OF EMOTION.

463

a certain relative proportion of the three great departments of the mental nature, and this proportion may be either retained or departed from in after-life. The primitive rush of power in some one direction may be checked or encouraged by the circumstances that the individual is placed in. The natural consequence, in the absence of interference from without, is that the prevailing bent strengthens itself, and what was originally feeble becomes feebler still. The originally powerful intellect, by asserting its own exercise, more and more deepens the penury of the emotional nature; while two of the elements once in the ascendant leave little room for the third. A person constitutionally weak in the emotional region, as shown by such tests as,-being little fired by the common pleasures of mankind, little given to the profuse display of demonstration and expression, not consoled under pain by the resources of laughter or tears,-may be taken in hand so as to be educated into a higher development in that region. The most effective mode of commencing operations would be to ply the influence of example, sympathy, and multiplied pleasures, in such a manner as to encourage the weak side, and discourage the others. Mere authority would not be relevant, and the individual's own volition is not likely to be exerted to change the very foundations of his character. In like manner, by a judicious starving regimen, an over-emotional nature may be toned down, and fuller play given to intellect and volition; an operation, perhaps, more trying to the patient. An exceedingly useful part of our moral discipline relating to this head is the restraint of those exciting motives, more than once referred to, whereby the will is prompted to act to a degree disproportioned to the real enjoyment or suffering of the individual. Every initiative within reach should be brought to bear for the establishment of so valuable a habit; and the difficulty of the case renders all of them not too much. systematic calming down of physical excitement cannot be over-inculcated in education, nor too strongly aimed at by each one's own volition. The human powers attain their maximum of efficiency only when a confirmed superiority is gained

The

over flurry, excitement, needless fears, and extravagant ebullitions; but as this is a triumph over one of the very greatest of human weaknesses, the whole force of favouring circumstances must chime in with the acquisition. Good initiatives, supported by the aids to plastic growth in their full measure, must be invoked in this all-important struggle.

9. Next, as regards the emotions in detail, something of what has now been said, on the general subject, applies, more or less, to each. We can, by the instrumentality of education, alter the degree of prominence of one of them in relation to the rest; while the naturally strong, left to itself, will grow still stronger. In every instance, the course of habit will be either to increase or diminish an original susceptibility. Take the example of Liberty. The indulgence of the natural roaming impulses, confirmed by habit, will prove an unsurmountable bar to a life of regulated industry. By a well-placed discipline, on the contrary, the pleasure of mere freedom, and the irksomeness of encountering cheeks, may be sapped by discouragement, by usage, and by withdrawing the mind from entertaining them, until they are esteemed as of no account. Such is the condition of the contented slave, and the man whose life is made up of artificial impositions.

10. The state of Terror affords the strongest instance, in support of the point insisted on at the opening of the chapter, as to the importance of an unbroken career in the formation of a habit. If we have to deal with a mind naturally susceptible to fear, it is a notorious fact, that we must do our utmost to avoid every incident that will of a certainty bring on fright. The initiation should be gradual, and the trial never beyond the acquired strength. A single fright may put back the subject of our training for an indefinite period. The case resembles the inuring of the body to fatigue, hardship, or exposure, where the stress should always be within the strength attained. In developing the frame to bear up against muscular fatigue, no wise trainer pushes it beyond the limits of safety to the organism; and in accustoming ourselves to endure the severity of cold and wet, we are almost sure to go backward

EDUCATION IN COURAGE.

465

a good many points, every time that we contract an illness. There is every reason to believe that this is a general principle, applicable to the fortifying of the system against disease and dissolving tendencies; and as respects the passion of fear, there is ample confirmation of it. A decided fright, taking hold of the mind, scathes and weakens the courageous tone for a length of time, if it be ever entirely got over. To exercise and try the system up to the point of acquired endurance, and yet not to pass that point, is the maxim never to be lost sight of. One must be exposed to occasions of fear in order to have the natural bravery strengthened; but a premature or excessive exposure might leave the subject more susceptible than The initiatives in carrying on this particular discipline need to be very good, if we desire to prosecute the acquisition far. Example, encouragement, gentleness, health, and an undistracted mode of life,-are the great requisites in the present as in every other difficult moral acquisition. Judging from the physiological differences of animals and of the sexes, it would appear that the quality of courage reposes upon a peculiar mode of nervous vigour, and consumes a definite portion of the nourishment of the frame. To instil this quality, where it is but feeble by nature, would probably demand a considerable diversion of the growing and plastic energy of the system, and hence few examples occur of very successful attempts to erect it on an acquired basis.

ever.

11. The Tender Emotion supplies a theme (so also would the sexual) for repeating a similar course of remarks, as to the possibility of exalting or depressing the original development, assigned to it by nature. If strong from the commencement, and supplied with objects to cherish it, there would inevitably follow a progressive enlargement of the susceptibility. A person so situated would find a great and increasing enjoyment in affection, sociability, and humane impulses, and would, as a part of the same endowment, be able to keep up the excitement over comparatively lengthened periods. The currents of energy would go largely into this one channel, leaving other regions, such as intellect and volition

so much less supplied with power. On the other hand, a character deficient in tenderness from the first, might be cherished into an average development, provided attractions are given, and the mind not suffered to be too much absorbed in the direction of greatest strength. We may thus raise or lower the sensibility as a whole, and render it a more or less important item in the sources of enjoyment or suffering; which is an effect entirely distinct from the habitual direction of it towards particular persons or things, termed objects of attachment or affection. No doubt the one effect is ready to go along with the other, but they are not therefore the same. As there are certain things that inspire tenderness at the very first presentation, as for example, infancy, so association constitutes many new objects, and increases the influence of all. Any circumstances that determine the emotion to be frequently felt in one connexion, cause a powerful adhesion to grow up, so as to develop in that special quarter a pre-eminent power to stir up the feeling; and we may have a certain number of those strong attachments to persons or to inanimate things, without rising above our original share of the general susceptibility. For example, self-complacency is, in my view, nothing more than a habitual tender regard to self as an object displaying attractive and admirable qualities. The primitive fund of tenderness may not be very great, but in consequence of its flowing incessantly in this particular channel, there may arise a considerable glow of excitement in that relation, not experienced in any other. Few persons undertake to control it, either in themselves, or even in others; nor would it be very easy to resist its insinuating progress when once the bent has set in. The outward expression can be checked, but the inward course is not much affected thereby. Following close upon selftenderness, we find vanity and all the forms of love of admiration and applause; and here there is more scope for control. By indulgence, the feeling of praise may be pampered beyond all limits, while, by a careful stinted regimen, it is possible to keep it very much under. The individual's own volition, however, is wanted to concur in the suppression; it being so