Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/86

 who told "the Head" about it, and at "the Head" himself for inflicting the pain); the emotion of suspense, as he watches the descending cane; perhaps the emotion of fear of the pain it will cause; the emotion of jealousy of the boy who was in the same scrape and was not caught; and, it may be, disgust with himself for "blubbing." Again, if we analyse the emotions of the girl who is saying goodbye to her soldier-brother, we may find that her emotional state includes fear lest her brother be killed; anger at the Germans for causing the war; the suspense of wishing now that the train would go, now that it would give a little longer time to say good-bye; hope that he will be kept safe; jealousy of his fiancée, who is occupying too much of his attention, and so on.

These states are very complex. But, as we have seen, they can be analysed into a number of simple or primary emotions. These primary emotions often occur alone. The child who is struck by another immediately feels the emotion of anger, the creak of the door in the small hours immediately excites the emotion of fear, and so on.

Let us now consider some of the general characteristics of emotion. (1) Emotions permeate the whole of life. They impart glow and colour and tone to existence. Very little of our normal waking life is altogether devoid of emotion. But people differ very greatly in their susceptibility to emotion. Many a dull, drab life seems to have lost altogether any capacity it ever had to be emotionally affected. Emotion is a specially "human" characteristic, and we often call a man who has no capacity for emotion,