Watch inborn

It is obvious that the end of all this analysis should be kept in view, and not allowed to escape into side channels. The Truth is neither in Plato nor in Aristotle; it is not in the East or in the West. In gathering together the scattered elements of truth from whatever source, let the student beware of that undue influence which an inborn tendency will inevitably exert. And in reference to tendencies. opinions already formed do not hesitate, when the season is opportune, to be critical. How far have your present convictions been formed by prepossessions, and by the natural desire for the conclusions you have adopted? Have you suffered or profited intellectually from the influences of your early years? Are you

And question

fully.

governed by the ipse dixits of some favourite teacher? Has your enthusiasm yourself carefor a form of truth drawn you into the snare of hasty theorizing? Such questions may be voted tedious, but self-knowledge is impossible without them.

(4) Write a series of brief essays on the

more concerned about getting a few people to think correctly than about inducing great masses to act under the influence of some great enthusiasm."

epochs of history in which great changes

intellectual, political, and moral-have taken Essay studies. place, such as the contact of Christianity with Greek Philosophy, and the Renaissance. Applied to the history of individuals-Augustine, Galileo, Bruno, and Spinoza-it will be alike instructive.

CHAPTER V

THOUGHT AS INFLUENCED BY EMOTION

"The light of the understanding is not a dry or pure light, but receives a tincture from the will and affections, and it forms the sciences accordingly, for men are most willing to believe what they most desire."

BACON, Novum Organum, Aph. 49.

In a previous chapter we made a brief survey of the faculties of mind and their relation to

Feeling at the basis of

thought. We said that the terms Feeling,
Intellect and Will, whilst they express real dis-
tinctions, are, after all, but different activities
of one mind. Feeling, however, is most
fundamental; consciousness is not a
thought, or a congregation of thoughts;
as Sully says, "feeling is subjective experience
par excellence." * Now it is a matter of some
importance to grasp this position thoroughly,

* The Human Mind, vol. ii. p. 2.

mental life.

for if emotion has so primary a place in the sphere of intellect, it ought to receive greater consideration than it has done hitherto, more particularly as a factor in the selection of ideas and beliefs, and as a guide to right conclusions. True, the psychologist devotes many pages to descriptions and classifications of emotions, and we are glad to avail ourselves of the results of his work, but he gives no rationale of the subject: it is no part of his work to do so.

(1) "The influence of emotion on thought is twofold, (a) negative or inhibitory, and (b) positive or promotive. The sudden Influence of arrival of a bit of exciting intelligence, emotion. whether of a joyful character as the

The twofold

inheritance of an unexpected fortune, or of a miserable character, as the death of a beloved friend, is apt to paralyse thought for a while. In the second place, emotion as cerebral excitement is, in its less agitating degrees, distinctly promotive of ideation. We never have in our cooler moments such a swift rush of ideas as we have in our moments of emotional excitement; hence the notion of the ancients that thought is most efficient in the complete abeyance of

"* There could be

feeling is an obsolete error."

no clearer statement than this of the natural and inevitable influence of feeling upon thought. We may now inquire, How far ought our thinking to be influenced by our feeling? This is the old question as to the conflict between a man's "head" and his "Heart" and "heart." Coleridge once said in the "Head." midst of theological perplexities: "My head is with Spinoza; my heart is with Paul and John." Now this use of the terms head and heart is a psychological convenience; the distinction is not scientific. But it sets forth a real experience, one that every man of mature years must have felt when facing the many problems of life. Such matters as those which concern the bases of conduct and the destiny of the human race, occasion this sense of an inward conflict between intellect and emotion † ; the dry reason of man suggests opinions which to the feelings are repugnant, and this is well stated by Tennyson when he says

*The Human Mind, vol. ii. pp. 60, 61.

Reason and

Faith.

+ In this chapter emotion and feeling are in most cases used interchangeably.

F