vital energy, a corresponding increase takes place in several others the organic functions generally are heightened, as the mental and the muscular activities subside.

Regarding the Sensations of Organic Life, commentary is almost superfluous. There are but few seeming exceptions to the rule, that organic pains are connected with the loss of power in some vital function, and organic pleasures with the opposite. Wounds, hurts, diseases, suffocation, thirst, hunger, nausea, are so many assaults upon our vitality. Taken in the gross, there can be no dispute as to the general tendency. As to the exceptions, the study of them, in some instances at least, serves to elucidate the principle. Cold is a painful agent; yet we know that it increases the functional activity of the muscles, the nerves, the lungs, and the digestiondepressing only one organ, the skin. We may hence infer that the skin is an organ of greater sensibility than any of these others. The stimulation is sometimes obtained without the depression, as in the reaction after a cold bath, whereby the skin recovers its tone; the whole effect is then exhilarating. When this is not so, we may still desire to prccure the organic advantage, though at the expense of a skin pain; as in walking out on a cold day in winter.

Another apparent exception is the occasional absence of all pain in the sick bed; also the happy elation sometimes shown in the last moments of life. These cases prove, what we are already prepared for, by the example of muscular repose already cited, that a high condition of all the vital functions is not necessary to agreeable sensibility; and open up the important enquiry, which of these functions are most connected with our happiness, and which least? It is clear that great muscular energy, exerted or possessed, is not an immediate essential, although an indirect adjunct of considerable value. It is equally clear that the power of digestion, and a certain degree of animal heat, are indispensable. There are states of inanition, of indigestion, and of chillness, that would sink the loftiest spirit into despair. Thus it may be, that the comfort of the bed-ridden patient, and the placidity

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of the dying moments, are in a measure due to the fact, that disease has overtaken chiefly the functions that least participate in our sensitive life. Painless extinction is in this way contrasted with suffering continued through a long life. There are parts whose derangement is not felt till on the eve of a fatal issue; there are others that cannot be impaired without making the fact known, and that may work ill for many years before causing death. Even the organs most connected with mind, next to the brain, may undergo morbid changes that do not prevent them from giving their usual genial response to a pleasurable wave. Obstructed bowels will quench more happiness than certain kinds of organic disease of the intestines. The lungs are sometimes at the last stage of decay before affecting the enjoyment of the patient; while the healthiest man is distressed by partial suffocation.

When we pass from the Organic Feelings to the Sensations of the five senses, we miss the same decided coincidences. In Taste and Smell, for example, the rule might hold with those sensations that involve important vital organs as the Stomach and the Lungs, but scarcely with the proper sensibilities of the senses. A taste merely sweet, without being a relish, gives pleasure; but we cannot, in this instance, assign any marked increase of vital function. A bitter taste can even operate as a tonic. So with odours. We have sweet odours that are sickly, in other words, depressing; and although some of the mal-odours may lower the vital power, this does not always happen, and there is no proportion between the pain and the lowering of the functions.

Soft and agreeable touches have an effect on the mind somewhat analogous to agreeable warmth; but we cannot attribute the same physical consequences to the one as to the other. On the other hand, the painful smart, far from diminishing the energies, rather excites them for a time at least; so that here too the induction would appear to fail.

The pleasures of Hearing and Sight are probably accompanied with increased vital energy to some extent. When a person is brought from confinement in the dark to the light

of day, there is observed a rise in the pulsation and in the breathing, which is so far in favour of the general doctrine. Still we cannot contend, that the degree of augmented vital energy corresponds always with the degree of the pleasure. In short, the principle that served us so well in summing up most of the organic pleasures and pains, does not apparently hold in the five senses. Some additional mode of action must be sought for, in order to give a complete theory of pleasure and pain. But before enquiring into this supplementary law, let us complete the survey of the facts bearing upon the one already announced, by viewing the accompaniments of feeling under another aspect.

19. Hitherto we have considered the physical agents of pleasure or pain, and have ascertained that in a number of cases, these are agents of bodily exaltation or depression. This does not exhaust the evidence. Another set of proofs is furnished by studying the manifestations under the opposing mental conditions, which will bring under review other pleasures and pains besides those arising from the Senses.

What, then, is the universally observed expression of pleasure, no matter how originating? Can it be better described than in the synonyms of the word pleasure,such epithets as lively, animated, gay, cheerful, hilarious, applied to the movements and expression,-all tending to suggest that our energies are exalted for the time. In joyful moods, the features are dilated; the voice is full and strong; the gesticulation is abundant; the very thoughts are richer. In the gambols of the young, we see to advantage the coupling of the two facts-mental delight, and bodily energy. Introduce some acute misery into the mind at that moment, and all is collapse, as if one had struck a blow at the heart. (I leave out of account at present the one form of uproarious and convulsive grief.) A medical diagnosis would show, beyond question, that the heart and the lungs were lowered in their action just then; and there would be good grounds for inferring an enfeebled condition of the digestive organs.

But we can be more particular in our delineation. The

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expression of the face has been completely analyzed by Sir Charles Bell. In pleasing emotions, the eyebrows are raised and the mouth dilated, the whole effect being to open up the countenance; in painful emotions, the corrugator of the eyebrow acts according to its name; the mouth is drawn together, and perhaps depressed at the angles, by the operation of the proper muscle. Now, in the cheerful expression, there is obviously a considerable amount of muscular energy put forth; a number of comparatively powerful muscles have been prompted to contract through their entire range. Here we have a confirmation of the general principle. It might seem hard to say, why nature selected those muscles for more especial stimulation when the bodily powers respond to a thrill of pleasure. These preferences are obviously a part of our constitution. So far the case accords with our view. But turn now to the painful expression, and what do we find? An apparently mixed effect. On the one hand, there is a relaxation of those parts that were made tense under a pleasurable wave, which is what we should expect. If this were all, the proof would be complete; the state of pain would be accompanied with loss of muscular energy in the features of the face. But this is not all. It would appear that new muscles are brought into play, for example, the corrugator of the eyebrows, the orbicular of the mouth, and the depressor of the angle of the mouth. Thus, if energy has been withdrawn from one class, another class has been concurrently stimulated. It is not then loss, but transference, of power that we witness. It was from looking at the matter

'In sorrow, a general languor pervades the whole countenance. The violence and tension of grief, the lamentations and the tumult, like all strong excitements, gradually exhaust the frame. Sadness and regret, with depression of spirits and fond recollections, succeed; and lassitude of the whole body, with dejection of the face and heaviness of the eyes, are the most striking characteristics. The lips are relaxed, and the lower jaw drops; the upper eyelid falls and half covers the pupil of the eye. The eye is frequently filled with tears, and the eyebrows take an inclination similar to that which the depressors of the angles of the lips give to the mouth.'--Anatomy of Expression, p. 151.

in this light, that Müller declared the selection of some muscles to be acted on under pleasure, and others under pain, as inexplicable; and Sir C. Bell spoke of the depressor of the angle of the mouth as a specific muscle in the expression of pain. A closer investigation, however, will show that even this putting forth of energy under pain, which appears so inconsistent with the general principle above enunciated, is really in keeping with that principle. It is the play of certain muscles of small calibre, whose contraction makes the relaxation of the larger muscles more complete. By a very slight putting forth of power, we can impart such a pose to the active organs generally, as enables them more thoroughly to renounce all stimulation, to disengage vital energy for behoof of the other parts. Thus, by a slight exercise of the flexor muscles of the body and the limbs, we can carry the relaxation of the extensors (the really energetic muscles) much farther than would happen by suspending their own proper stimulus. So in the face. A certain slight exertion of the corrugator of the eyebrows, perfects the relaxation of the more powerful muscle that elevates the eyebrows; the occurrence of a small stream of energy in the orbicular of the mouth, and in the depressor of the angle, assists the zygomatics and buccinators in relaxing themselves to the full. By the employment of a small force, we may be supposed to release a still greater quantity; so that, after all, the positive exertion of those muscles that operate under pain, merely co-operates in the general direction of the discharge or renunciation of energy on the whole. I venture to say, that but for this effect, they would not be stimulated at all in depressing emotions; were it not that the outlay is more than repaid by a saving, they would continue unmoved in those circumstances. Why is it that a forced sadness of the countenance makes the heart better,-that the employment of a certain amount of muscular energy serves to compose the body and the limbs to rest after fatigue? Simply that the general mass of muscle may attain the maximum of relaxation; a result gained only by the contraction of some portions. The body being moved