LAUGHTER AND GRIEF.

291

vulsive movements of the diaphragm, we may be quite sure that the reaction would be unequivocally depressing, no less than that of acute pains. The proof is decisive that this outburst of joyful emotion is a sudden heightening of the powers of life, which more especially shows itself in increased and convulsive respiration, in vocal tension, and in the pleased expression of the features.

The convulsive outburst of grief contrasts strikingly with the above. The principal in the effect is still the convulsive action of the chest; but mark the difference. The expiration, which in the other was violently increased, is rendered slow. The diaphragm must answer for this fact, or rather the nervous centres that maintain it in operation. These centres, instead of overflowing, have become bankrupt; they cannot even keep up the usual supply of power. This partial stoppage, or paralysis, of the diaphragm is a key to the whole phenomenon. To prevent suffocation, the muscles of inspiration have to be stimulated by efforts, like the application of bellows to inflate the lungs of a drowning man; which forces on, by reaction, an additional expiratory impulse. The great declension of vital energy is apparent. The accessories attest the same fact. The voice is feebly exerted, and the consequence is a long-drawn, melancholy note. The pharynx is convulsed, and is incapable of its rhythmical movements in swallowing. The features are relaxed, except in so far as they sympathize with the efforts of forced inspiration. These appearances are sometimes modified, as when a robust child bursts out in a violent fit of crying, expending a great deal of energy on the occasion. Great animal spirits can afford this manifestation; and it may be little else than an outlet for surplus power, having less of sorrow than of anger. But that would not be the fair or typical instance. In all cases, the reaction shows that power has been wasted and the system impoverished, the very opposite of laughter.

The lachrymal effusion is an accompaniment of grief, but there are also tears of joy. In the extreme of merriment, the eye is moistened and suffused. We can easily suppose, that

an increased vital stimulus of the lachrymal gland and sac would promote the secretion of the healthy liquid, and that this, by coursing over the sensitive surface of the eyelids, would give a certain genial sensation, which we enjoy in the happy moods of tender emotion. The amount may be increased so as almost to reach the point of visible drops, and still be of the genial character. But we must not conclude that the profuse stream that overflows in the outburst of grief, is merely the same action carried one stage farther. The common fact of abundance of liquid does not prove that all else is the same. As we may have a profuse salivation, containing very little of the material that avails for insalivating the food, so we may have a profuse lachrymal effusion, caused, not by the increased, but by the diminished action of the gland, in which case the quality would be radically changed. I make this assumption partly on speculative grounds, and partly because I think any one will recognize a difference in the sensation of the eyelids, when moistened under a joyful wave, and when the moistening comes of pain or depression.

Not only in painful states, but also in extreme instances of pleasurable emotion, the blood-vessels of the brain are congested, and the effusion of tears is one mode of relief.

21. The principle now contended for not only explains a large and important region of facts, but is essential to the preservation of the individual. If pleasure were something subversive of vital force, our system would be a house divided against itself. On the other hand, if the above principle were rigorously true, we should never be inwardly moved to act in a manner prejudicial to our physical welfare. That we are so moved is, then, a proof of the existence of some modifying influence, which must be brought to light, in order to complete the theory of pleasure and pain. It has been seen that th pleasures of the five senses do not point to any

increase of vitality; and one might say the of the special emotions-wonder, affection, ge, fine art, &c. That these are accompanied

PLEASURE CONNECTED WITH STIMULATION.

293

by some increase of vital power is proved by their expression, which is of a lively, animated kind, whenever the pleasure is considerable. But it could not be said, that the increase of vigour in the system at large corresponds on all occasions to the degree of the pleasure. A still more startling exception is presented by the Narcotic stimulants, for these are known to debilitate and waste the powers of life. And if it be maintained that this is only an after consequence, and corresponds to the stage when the mental tone has changed to pain and depression, I reply that such is not strictly the fact; a man drinking to intoxication loses his physical energy before the feeling of exhilaration abates; and the pleasurable excitement of tobacco and of opium may continue under an almost total prostration of the vital forces.

We are thus called upon to qualify the doctrine that connects Pleasure and Self-conservation, by another doctrine. connecting Pleasure simply with Stimulation. The precise limits of this second principle are to be determined by an examination of the facts.

22. It is convenient to divide the modes of stimulation into two classes: First, what may be called the natural stimulants of the Senses and the Emotions; and secondly, Narcotics and Drugs.

First. On examining the natural stimulants of the Senses, what we appear to find is this. Touches, Sounds, Sights, are pleasurable within certain limits of intensity (excepting perhaps discordant sounds). Pain in these three higher senses arises from excess in the stimulus applied. The point of excess is exceedingly variable in different persons, and in the same person at different times; and notoriously depends upon the vigour of the system. So that we may say with certainty, as regards the sensations of Touch, Hearing, and Sight, that sensation, as such, is pleasurable within limits. determined by the vigour of the nervous system. As regards the chemical senses, Taste and Smell, we cannot. lay down the rule in the same positive manner; we cannot affirm the difference between painful tastes or odours and

those that are pleasant to be merely a difference of acuteness. We do not at present understand what are the distinctive modes of action of sweet and bitter tastes on the nervous substance, and we may not say, regarding tastes and odours, that sensation as such is pleasurable. At all events, these pleasures and pains are not obviously explained on the principle of Conservation: both the one and the other are referable purely to the principle of Stimulation. A bad odour does not owe its painful agency to depression of vitality, nor a sweet odour to the opposite fact.

Some of the simpler emotions can be easily explained on one or other of the two principles. Wonder is a pleasurable stimulant, if not applied out of proportion to the vigour of the system. So with tender feeling, with the sentiment of power, fine art, &c. Many of the painful emotions are associated with depressing agencies: fear, sorrow, shame, are familiar examples. These may also operate as perverse stimulants, or irritants, of the nervous system.

And now, in the second place, as regards narcotic stimulation, we have a series of substances-alcohol, tobacco, tea, opium, haschish (Indian hemp), betel-nut-that are pleasurable, but hardly in any degree favouring vital action. We may allow them some influence in promoting the physical vigour for a brief interval of time, but their effect, as stimulants of the mental tone, is out of all proportion to the most that can be claimed for them in that respect. On the other side, if carried beyond certain narrow bounds, they undermine and destroy the human constitution; and the principle of self-conservation is not always able to avert that consequence.

The law of Stimulation, as a supplementary principle to Conservation, amounts to this :-We possess a certain amount of nervous vigour or irritability, which is converted into the full actuality of pleasure, only when impelled by shocks that have no nutritive tendency, but merely draw upon, and consume, the accumulated power. If we apply stimulants, up to a certain point, we do not dissipate force beyond what will

CONSERVATION AND STIMULATION COMPARED.

295

be repaired; if we fall short of that point, we miss the pleasure that our frame is able to sustain; if we exceed the point, we run into a declension or degeneracy. It would seem that we can afford both the natural stimulation of the senses, and a certain small amount of stimulating drugs, and yet not over-draw our allowance of nervous. power.

23. One might, not without plausibility, maintain the position that Stimulation is the sole cause of pleasure, and that the nourishment of vital energy merely enables this to be pushed to greater lengths, without degenerating into pain. The facts would undoubtedly bear this interpretation. It could be said that stimulation of some kind can never be absent; and that, by increasing the vital power, this stimulation, falling on the refreshed nervous substance, would impart the pleasurable tone. But it is better, in the present state of our knowledge, not to push either principle to exclusive predominance. A certain physical vitality, in some organs at least, if not an essential condition of a pleasurable tone, can always enhance the effect of the other cause, and in practice is often all that we need to look to.

The contrast of country and city life familiarly illustrates the two principles. The pleasure of the one results mainly from the conservative and healthy or vitalizing influences, the pleasure of the other from variety of stimulation. It is possible to attain a measure of happiness by either mode. High health is not an essential of pleasure; the nerves may respond to agreeable stimulations in the midst of some (not all) modes of bodily weakness. The readiness to take on the thrill of intense pleasure is a speciality of the nervous constitution; the state of the general system, and more particularly of the glandular organs, is an important element, but the main foundation is to be sought in an endowment of, in the case, the nerve tissue. A man may have, as it were, a natural genius for being happy. (For a further discussion of the physical accompaniments of Feeling, see Appendix B.)