Page:An introduction to ethics.djvu/89

 dilatation of the nostrils, no clenching of the teeth, no impulse to vigorous action, but in their stead limp muscles, calm breathing, and a placid face?" But it is not only intense emotions that give rise to organic sensations and physical expressions. Organic changes, e.g. alteration in the rate of pulse-beat or breathing, accompany a slight touch of irritation just as they do a wild fit of rage.

§2. The Control and Organisation of Emotion. Children and savages naturally allow full scope to their emotions. Their emotions are readily excited, and they do nothing to control their expressions. In the child or the savage the emotion of anger immediately gives rise to the impulse to strike, and the impulse is generally obeyed. One of the first lessons the child has to learn is the necessity of restraining its emotions. It has to be made to realise that there are other persons in the world besides itself, and that its actions have been probably such as would naturally arouse angry feelings in the other person also. But the other person has learned to control that emotion.

Emotions may best be kept under restraint by controlling their expressions. The child soon learns to control the movements of his limbs. When he is angry he must not kick or strike. Again, he must restrain the vocal expression of his emotions, or at least of some of them. He must not scream when he is angry. He takes longer to learn to control the facial expression of emotion. And it is not desirable that we should have our emotions so completely under control that they never display themselves in