with infants (s. 103) the tears irritate the eyes, and thus excite the
contraction of the surrounding in muscles. Many good remarks are
scattered throughout this volume, to which I shall hereafter refer.
Short discussions on Expression may be found in various works, which
need not here be particularised. Mr. Bain, however, in two of his works
has treated the subject at some length. He says,[8] I look upon the
expression so-called as part and parcel of the feeling. I believe it to
be a general law of the mind that along with the fact of inward feeling
or consciousness, there is a diffusive action or excitement over the
bodily members. In another place he adds, A very considerable number
of the facts may be brought under the following principle: namely, that
states of pleasure are connected with an increase, and states of pain
with an abatement, of some, or all, of the vital functions. But the
above law of the diffusive action of feelings seems too general to
throw much light on special expressions.
Mr. Herbert Spencer, in treating of the Feelings in his Principles of
Psychology (1855), makes the following remarks: Fear, when strong,
expresses itself in cries, in efforts to hide or escape, in
palpitations and tremblings; and these are just the manifestations that
would accompany an actual experience of the evil feared. The
destructive passions are shown in a general tension of the muscular
system, in gnashing of the teeth and protrusion of the claws, in
dilated eyes and nostrils in growls; and these are weaker forms of the
actions that accompany the killing of prey. Here we have, as I
believe, the true theory of a large number of expressions; but the
chief interest and difficulty of the subject lies in following out the
wonderfully complex results. I infer that some one (but who he is I
have not been able to ascertain) formerly advanced a nearly similar
view, for Sir C. Bell says,[9] It has been maintained that what are
called the external signs of passion, are only the concomitants of
those voluntary movements which the structure renders necessary. Mr.
Spencer has also published[10] a valuable essay on the physiology of
Laughter, in which he insists on the general law that feeling passing
a certain pitch, habitually vents itself in bodily action, and that
an overflow of nerve-force undirected by any motive, will manifestly
take first the most habitual routes; and if these do not suffice, will
next overflow into the less habitual ones. This law I believe to be of
the highest importance in throwing light on our subject. [11]
11