Chapter thirteen. The passions. Arising from the most elemental instinctive emotions, we
find what may be termed the passions. By the term passion is meant those
strong feelings in which the elemental selfish instincts are manifested in relation to other persons,
either in the phase of attraction or repulsion. In this class we find
the elementary phases of love and the feelings of hate, anger, jealousy,
revenge, etc. This class of emotions usually manifests violently as compared with the
other emotions. The passions generally arise from self preservation, race preservation and reproduction,
self interest, self aggrandizement, etc. And may be regarded as a
more complex phase of the elemental instinctive emotions. The elemental instinctive emotions of self
preservation and self comfort cause the individual to experience, in manner manifest the passional
emotions of desire for combat, anger, hate, revenge, et cetera.
While instinctive emotions leading to reproduction and continuance of the race give rise to the
passional emotions of sexual love, jealousy, et cetera. The desire to attract
the other sex increases ambition, vanity, love of display and other feelings.
It is only when this class of emotions blends with the higher emotions that the
passions become purified and refined. But it must not be forgotten that these emotions
were very necessary for the welfare of the race in the early stage in its
evolution, and that they still play an active part in human life under the
greater or less restraint imposed by civilized society. Nor should it be forgotten that
Tromley's emotions have evolved the highest love of one human being for another from instinctive
sexual love, and the racial in soccertinct have developed the higher affection of man
for woman and woman for man in all their beautiful manifestations, and the love
of the parent for the child, and the love of the child for the
parent. The first manifestation of altruism arises in the love of the living creature
for its mate, and in the love of the parents for their offspring.
In certain forms of life, where the association of the sexes is merely for
the moment and is not followed by protection, mutual aid, and companionship,
there is found an absence of mutual affection of any kind, the only feeling
being an elemental reproductive instinct, bringing the male and female together for the moment,
an almost purely reflex activity. In the same way in the cases of
certain animals the rattlesnake, for instance, in which the young are able to
protect themselves from birth, there is seen a total absence of parental affection or
the return thereof human love between the sexes in its higher and lower degrees is
a natural evolution from passional emotion of a low order. Due to the growth
of social, ethical, moral, and esthetic emotion arising from the necessities the
increasing complexity and development of human life, the simpler forms of passional emotion are
almost entirely instinctive in their manifestation. Indeed, in many cases there appears to
be but little more than a high form of reflex nervous action. The following
words of William James give us an interesting view of this fact of life.
The cat runs after the mouse runs or shows fight before. The dog,
avoids falling from walls and trees, shuns fire and water, not because he
has any notion either of life or of death, or of self preservation.
He acts in each case separately and simply because he cannot help it. Being
so framed that when that particular running thing called a mouse appears in his field
of vision, he must pursue that when that particular barking an obstreperous thing called
a dog appears there, he must retire, if at a distance, and
scratch if close by. That he must withdraw his feet from water and his
face from flame, et cetera. Now, why do the various animals do
what seem to us such strange things in the presence of such outlandish stimuli?
Why does the hen, for instance, submit herself to the tedium of incubating
such a fearfully uninteresting set of objects as a nest full of eggs? Unless
she have some sort of prophetic inkling of the result, the only answer is
ad hominem. We can only interpret the instinct of brutes by what we know
of instincts in ourselves. Why do men always lie down when they can on
soft beds rather than non soft floors. Why do they sit around a stove
on a cold day. Why in a room do they place themselves ninety nine
times out of a hundred, with their faces towards the middle rather than to
the wall. Why does the maiden interest the youth so much that everything about
us seems more important and significant than anything else in the world. Nothing more
can be said than that these are human ways, and that every creature likes
its own ways and takes to following them. As a matter of course,
science may come and consider these ways and find that most of them are useful.
But it is not for the sake of their utility that they are followed,
but because, at the moment of following them, we feel that it
is the only appropriate and natural thing to do. Not one man in a
million, when taking his dinner, ever thinks of its utility. He eats
because the food tastes good and makes him want more. If you should ask
him why he wants to eat more of what tastes like that, instead of
revering you as a philosopher, he'll probably laugh at you for a fool,
James continues. It takes, in short, what Berkeley called a mind debauched
by learning to carry the process of making the natural seem strange so far as
to ask the why of any instinctive human act. To the metaphysician alone,
can such questions arise as why do we smile when pleased and not scowl?
Why are we unable to talk to a crowd as to a single friend.
Why does the particular maiden turn our wits upside down? The common man can
only say, of course we smile. Of course our heart palpitates at the
sight of the crowd. Of course we love the maiden, that beautiful soul,
clad in that perfect form, so palpably and flagrantly made from all eternity
to be loved. And so probably does each animal feel about the particular things
it tends to do in the presence of particular objects, They too, are
aup priori syntheses. To the lion. It is the lioness which is made
to be loved to the bear, the she bear to the broody hen the
notion would seem monstrous that there should be a creature in the world to whom
a nest full of eggs was not the utterly fascinating precious and never to be
much sat upon object which it is to her. Thus we may be sure
that, however mysterious some animal's instincts may appear to us, our instincts will
appear no less mysterious to them. And we may conclude that to the animal
which you bays it, every impulse in every step of that instinct shines with
its own sufficient light, and seems at the moment the only externally right and
proper thing to do. It may be one for its own sake exclusively.
One has very little need, as a rule to develop the passional emotions.
Instinct has taken pretty good care that we shall have our share of this class
of feelings. But there is a need to train, restrain, govern and
control these emotions, for the conditions which brought about their original being have changed.
Our social conventions require that we should subordinate these passional feelings to some extent
at least. Society insists that we must restrict our love impulses to certain limits
and to certain quarters, and that we subdue our anger and hate except toward
the enemies of our land, the disturb us a public peace, and the
menaces of the social conventions of our time and land. The public welfare requires
that we inhibit our fighting impulses, except in cases of self defense or war.
Public policy requires that we keep our ambitions with with then reasonable limits,
which limits change from time to time. Of course, in short, society
has stepped in and insisted that man as a social being must not only acquire
a social conscience, but must also develop sociable emotions and inhibit his unsociable ones.
The evolution of man's nature has caused him unconsciously to modify his elemental instinctive
passional emotions and subordinate them to the dictates of social, ethical, moral,
and esthetic feelings and ideals, and to intellectual considerations. Even the original elemental
instincts of the lower animals have been modified by reason of the social requirements of
the pack, herd or drove, until a modified instinct is now the ruling
force. The general principles of emotional control, restraint, and mastery, as
given in a preceding chapter, are applicable to the particular class emotions now under
consideration here. One, by refraining from a physical expression, one may at
least partially inhibit the emotion. Two, By refusing to create the habit,
one may more easily manifest control. Three. By refusing to dwell upon the
idea or mental picture of the exciting object, one may lessen the stimulus.
Four. By cultivating the opposite class of emotions, one may inhibit any class
of feeling. Five. And finally, by acquiring a control of the attention
by means of the will, one has the reins firmly in hand, and
may drive or hold back the steeds of passion as he wills. The passions
are like fiery horses, useful if well under control, but most dangerous if
the control is lost. The ego is the driver, the will, his
hands, attention, the reins habit the bit, and the passions the horses.
To drive the charity of life under social conditions, the eger must have
strong hands will to tighten or loosen the reins of attention. He must also
employ a well designed and shaped bit of habit. Without strong hands, good
rains, and well adjusted bit, the fiery steeds of passion may gain control
and running away dashed the chariot in its driver over the precipice and on to
the jagged rocks below. End of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen The social emotions.
As man became a social animal, he developed new trays of character,
new habits of action, new ideals, new customs, and consequently new emotions.
Emotions long entertained and long manifested by the race become more or less instinctive
and are passed along in the form of either a inherited stimulus akin to but
less in degree and force than the more elemental emotions or b of inherited tendency
to manifest the acquired emotional feeling upon the presentation of sufficiently strong stimuli. Hence
arises that which we have called the social emotions. Under the classification of the
social emotions are those acquired tendencies of action and feeling of the race which are
more or less altruistic, and are concerned with the welfare of others and one's
duties and obligations towards society and our fellow men. In this class are to
be found the emotions which impel us to perform what we consider or feel to
be our duty toward our neighbours, and our obligations and duty toward the state,
as expressed in os its laws, the customs of men of our country,
or the ideals of the community. In another phase, it manifests a
sympathy, fallow feeling, and kindness in general. In its first phase,
we find civic virtue, law abiding inclination, honesty, square dealing, and
patriotism. In its second phase, we find sympathy for others, charity,
mutual aid, the alleviation of poverty and suffering, the erection of asylums for
orphans and the aged, hospitals for the sick, and the formation of societies
for general charitable work. In many cases, we find the social, ethical
and moral emotions closely allied with religious emotion, and by many these are supposed
to be practically identical, but there is a vast difference in spite of their
frequent association. For instance, we find many persons of high civic virtue,
of exalting moral ideals and manifesting ethical qualities of the most advanced type, who
are lacking in the ordinary religious feelings. On the other hand, we too
frequently find persons professing great religious zeal and apparently experiencing the most intense religious emotional
feeling, who are efficient in social, civic, ethical, and moral qualities
in the best sense of these terms. The aim of all religion worthy of
the name, however, is to encourage ethical and moral as well as religious
emotions. We must here make the distinction between those manifesting the actions termed ethical
and moral because they feel that way, and those who merely comply with the
conventional requirements because they fear the consequences of their violation. The first class have
the true social, ethical and moral feelings, tastes, ideals, and inclinations,
while the second manifest merely the element feelings of self preservation and selfish prudence.
The first class are good because they feel that way and find it natural
to be so, while the others are good merely because they have to be
or be punished by legal penalty or public opinion, loss of prestige, loss
of financial support, et cetera. The social, moral, and ethical emotions
are believed to have arisen in the race by reason of the association of individuals
and communities, and the rise of the necessity for mutual aid and forbearance.
Even many of the species of the lower animals have social, moral or ethical
codes of their own, based on the experience of the species or family in
fractions of which they punish severely. In the same way, sympathy and the
altruistic feelings are supposed to have arisen. The community of interest and understanding in
the tribe, family, or clan brought not only the feeling of natural defense
and protection, but also the finer in a sympathetic feeling of the pains and
sufferings of their associates. This, in the progress of the race, has
developed into broader and more complex ideals and feelings. Theology explains the moral feelings
as resulting from conscience, which it holds to be a special faculty of the
mind or soul divinely given. Science, while emitting the existence of the state
of feelings which we call conscience, denies its supernatural origin and ascribes it to
the result of evolution, heredity, experience, education, and suggestion. Conscience,
according to science, is a compound of intellectual and emotional states. Conscience
is not an invariable or infallible guide, but depends entirely upon the heredity,
education, experience, and environment of the individual. It accompanies the moral and
ethical codes of the race, which vary with time and with country. Actions
which were thought right a century ago are condemned now. Likewise, things condemned
a century ago are thought right now. What is commended in Turkey is condemned
in England, and vice versa. Moral tastes and ideals, like esthetic ones,
vary with time and country. There is no absolute code which has always
been true in all places. There is an evolution in the ideals of morals
and ethics, as in everything else, and conscience and the moral and ethical
emotions accompany the changing ideals. Many of the moral and ethical principles originally arose
from necessity or utility, but have since developed into natural, spontaneous feeling on
the part of the race. It is held that the race is rapidly developing
a social conscience which will cause the wiping out of many social conditions which are
now the disgrace of civilization. It is predicted that in time the race will
look back upon the existence of poverty in our civilization, as our generation now
looks back upon the existence of slavery, imprisonment for debt, capital punishment for
the theft of a loaf of bread, the killing of prisoners of war,
et cetera. It is thought that in time wars of conquest will be deemed
as utterly immoral as to day is regarded the murder of a body of men
by a band of pirates or bandits. In the same way, the economic
slavery of today will be seen as immoral as now seems the physical slavery of
the past. In not far distant time, it will seem incredible that society
could ever have allowed one of its members to die of hunger in the streets,
or of poverty and inattention in the sick room of the hovel. Not
only will the ideals and feeling of ethical and moral responsibility change and evolve,
but the feelings of personal sympathy will evolve in accordance therewith at least such is
the dream and prophecy of some of the world's greatest thinkers. The social,
ethical, and moral emotions may be developed by a study of the evolution and
meaning of society on the one hand, and a perception of the condition of
the lives of less fortunate individuals on the other. The first will awaken new
ideas of the history and real meaning of social association and mutual intercourse, and
will develop a new sense of responsibility, duty, and civic and social pride.
The second will awaken understanding and sympathy and a desire to do what one
can to help those who are the underdog, and also to bring about a
better state of affairs. In general. The study of history and civilization,
of sociology and civics will do much in the fees first direction. The study
of human kind and its life problems and conditions will do the same thing in
the second case. In both cases, there will be awakened a new sense
of right and wrong, a new conception of aught and aught not regarding one's
relations to the race, society, and his fellow beings. Let no one
deceive himself or herself by the smug assumption that the race is entirely emerged from
barbarism and is now on the top wave of civilization. The truth, as
known to all careful and conscientious thinkers, is that we are but half civilized,
if indeed that much. Many of our customs and conventions are those of
a half barbarous people. Our ideals are low, our customs often vile.
We lack not only high ideals, but in many cases we show a lack
of sanity in our social convention. But evolution is moving slowly ahead. A
better day is dawning. The signs are in the air to be seen by
all thoughtful men. Civilization is climbing the ladder, aided by the evolution of
the social, ethical, un moral emotions and the development of the intellect.
In connection with this phase of the emotions, we invite the student to consider
the following excellent words of Professor Davidson in his History of Greek education. It
is not enough for a man to understand the conditions of rational life in his
own time, he must likewise love these conditions and hate whatever leads a life
of an opposite kind. This is only another way of saying that he must
love the good and hate the evil, for the good is simply what conduces
to rational or moral life, and the evil simply what leads away from it.
It is perfectly obvious as soon as it is pointed out that all immoral
life is due to a false distribution of affection, which again is often,
though by no means always, due to a want of intellectual cultivation. He
that attributes to anything a value greater or less than it really possesses in the
order of things has already placed himself in a false relation to it, and
will, certainly, when he comes to act with reference to it, act
immorally. End of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen. The religious emotions. By
the religious emotions is meant that class of emotional feeling arising from the faith and
belief in, or consciousness of the presence of supernatural beings, powers, entities,
or forces. This form of emotion is regarded as distinct from the ethical
and moral emotions, although frequently found in connection therewith Likewise, it is independent
of any special form of intellectual belief, for it is far more fundamental and
often exists without creed, philosophy or stated belief, the only manifestation in such
cases being a feeling of the existence of supernatural beings, forces, and powers
to which man has a relation and to which he owes obedience. To those
who may think that this is too narrow a conception of religious emotion, we
refer the following definitions of religion from the dictionaries. The acts or feelings which
result from the belief of a god or gods having superior control over matter,
life, or destiny. Religion is subjective, designating the feelings and acts of
men which relate to God. Theology is objective, denoting the science which investigates
the existence, laws, and attributes of God, or objectively the outer form
and embodiment which the inward spirit of a true or false devotion assumes, objectively,
the feeling of veneration with which the worshiper regards the being he adores.
Darwin, in his Descent of Man, says that the feeling of religious devotion
is a highly complex one, consisting of love, complete submission to an exalted
and mysterious superior, a strong sense of dependence, fear, reverence, gratitude,
hope for the future, and perhaps other elements. He is of the
opinion that no man can experience so complex an emotion until advanced in his intellectual
and moral faculties to at least a moderately higher level. The authorities generally agree
with Darwin, although the most recent study of the history of religion has shown
that religious feeling has a far more primitive origin than that indicated by Darwin.
It is true that the lower animals are not deemed capable of anything approaching religious
feeling unless there is a feeling approaching it in attitude of the dog and horse
and other domestic animals toward their masters. But man, as soon as he
is able to attribute natural phenomena to a supernatural cause and power manifest secrude religious
feeling and emotion. He begins by believing in, fearing and worshiping natural forces
and objects, such as the sun, the moon, the wind, thunder
and lightning, the ocean, rivers, mountains, etc. It is claimed
that there is no natural object that has not been deified and worshiped by some
people at some time in the history of the race. Later, man acquired
the anthropomorphic conception of deities and created many gods in his own image, endowing
them with his own attributes, qualities, and characteristics. The mental characteristics and
morals of a people can always be ascertained by knowledge of the average conception of
deity held by them. Polytheism, or the belief in many gods, were
succeeded by monotheism, or belief in one God. Monotheism ranges from the crudest
conception of a manlike God to the highest conception of a spiritual being, transcending
all human qualities, attributes, or characteristics. Man began by believing in many
God things, then in many God persons, then in one God person,
then in one God who is a spirit, then in one universal Spirit,
which is God. It is a far cry from the savage, manlike God
of old to the conception of universal spirit of the God. Drunken philosopher Spinotza,
the extreme of religious belief is that which holds that there is nothing but
God. All else is allusion, a pantheistic idealism. Buddhism, at least
in its original form, discarded the idea of a preme being and held that
alternate reality is but universal law. Hence the accusation that Buddhism is an atheistic
religion, although it is one of the world's greatest religions, having over four
hundred million followers. But the beliefs of the religious person may be considered as
resulting from intellectual processes, His religious feelings and emotions arise from another part of
his mental being. It is the testimony of the authorities of all religions.
The religious conviction is an inner experience rather than an intellectual conception. The emotional
element is always active in religious manifestations everywhere. The purely intellectual religion is naught
but a philosophy. Religion with that feeling and emotion is an anomaly. In
all true religion, there exists a feeling of inner assurance and faith, love
or dependence, submission, reverence, gratitude, hope, and perhaps fear.
The emotional element must always be present, not necessarily in the form of emotional
excess, as in the case of revival hysteria or the dance of the whirling
Derbishes, but at least in the form of the calm, fervent feeling of
that peace which paseth understanding. When religion departs from the emotional phase, it
becomes merely a school of philosophy or an ethical culture society. The student must
not lose sight of the uplifting influence of true religious emotion by reason of his
knowledge of its lowly origin. Like the lotus, which has its roots in
the slimy, feelthy mud of the river, and its stem in the muddy,
stagnant, and foul waters thereof, but its beautiful flower unfolded in the
clear air and facing the sun. So is religious feeling responsible for some of
the most beautiful and uplifting ideals and actions of the race. If its origin
and history contain much that is not consistent with the highest ideals of the race
to day, it is not the fault of religion, but of the race
itself. Religion, like all else in the universal manifestation, is under the
laws of evolution, growth, and development. While the religion of the future
may be we know not, But the profits of the race are dreaming visions
of a religion as much higher than that of to day, as the latter
is higher than the crude fetishism of the savage. The following quotation from John
Fisks through nature to God is appropriate in this place, Fists says. My
aim is to show that that other influence that inward conviction, the craving for
final cause, the theistic assumption, is itself one of the master facts of
the universe, and as much entitled to respect as any fact in physical nature
can possibly I be. The argment flashed upon me about ten years ago while
reading Herbert Spencer's controversy with Frederic Harrison concerning the nature and reality of religion.
Because Spencer derived historically the greater part of modern belief in an unseen world from
the Savage's primeval world of dreams and ghosts, some of his critics maintained that
logical consistency required him to dismiss the modern belief as utterly false, otherwise he
would be guilty of seeking to evolve truth from falsehood by no means, replied
Spencer. Contrariwise, the ultimate form of the religious consciousness is the final development
of a consciousness which, at the outset contained a germ of truth obscured by
multitudinous errors. Fisk, in this connection quotes the Tennysonian question, who forged
that other influence that heat of inward evidence? By which he doubts against the
sense. The religious emotions may be developed by allowing the mind to dwell upon
the power underlying the universe of fleeting, changing forms, by reading prose and
poetry in which an appeal is made to the religious instinct, by listening to
music which awakens the emotion of reverence and awe, and finally by meditating upon
the inner spirit imminent in every living being. As an old Hindus age once
said, there are many paths by which men arrive at a knowledge of the
presence of God, But there is but one goal and destination.