Few individuals, however, can long reflect about a hated person,
without feeling and exhibiting signs of indignation or rage.
But if the offending person be quite insignificant, we experience merely
disdain or contempt. If, on the other hand, he is all-powerful, then
hatred passes into terror, as when a slave thinks about a cruel master,
or a savage about a bloodthirsty malignant deity.[1] Most of our
emotions are so closely connected with their expression, that they
hardly exist if the body remains passive--the nature of the expression
depending in chief part on the nature of the actions which have been
habitually performed under this particular state of the mind.
A man, for instance, may know that his life is in the extremest peril,
and may strongly desire to save if; yet, as Louis XVI.
said, when surrounded by a fierce mob, "Am I afraid? feel my pulse."
So a man may intensely hate another, but until his bodily frame
is affected, he cannot be said to be enraged.
[1] See some remarks to this effect by Mr. Bain, `The Emotions and the Will,'
2nd edit. 1865, p. 127.
_Rage_.--I have already had occasion to treat of this emotion in
the third chapter, when discussing the direct influence of the excited
sensorium on the body, in combination with the effects of habitually
associated actions.
Pages:
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353