mind.
As a further illustration of the view here advanced, I may remark that
if, during an early period of life, when habits of all kinds are
readily established, our infants, when pleased, had been accustomed to
utter loud peals of laughter (during which the vessels of their eyes
are distended) as often and as continuously as they have yielded when
distressed to screaming-fits, then it is probable that in after life
tears would have been as copiously and as regularly secreted under the
one state of mind as under the other. Gentle laughter, or a smile, or
even a pleasing thought, would have sufficed to cause a moderate
secretion of tears. There does indeed exist an evident tendency in this
direction, as will be seen in a future chapter, when we treat of the
tender feelings. With the Sandwich Islanders, according to
Freycinet,[624] tears are actually recognized as a sign of happiness;
but we should require better evidence on this head than that of a
passing voyager. So again if our infants, during many generations, and
each of them during several years, had almost daily suffered from
prolonged choking-fits, during which the vessels of the eye are
distended and tears copiously secreted, then it is probable, such is
the force of associated habit, that during after life the mere thought
of a choke, without any distress of mind, would have sufficed to bring
tears into our eyes.
To sum up this chapter, weeping is probably the result of some such
chain of events as follows. Children, when wanting food or suffering in
any way, cry out loudly, like the young of most other animals, partly
as a call to their parents for aid, and partly from any great exertion
serving relief. Prolonged screaming inevitably leads to the gorging of
the blood-vessels of the eye; and this will have led, at first
consciously and at last habitually, to the contraction of the muscles
round the eyes in order to protect them. At the same time the spasmodic
pressure on the surface of the eye, and the distension of the vessels
within the eye, without necessarily entailing any conscious sensation,
will have affected, through reflex action, the lacrymal glands.
Finally, through the three principles of nerve-force readily passing
along accustomed channels of association, which is so widely extended
in its power and of certain actions, being more under the control of
the will than others it has come to pass that suffering readily causes
the secretion of tears, without being necessarily accompanied by any
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