Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/96

 80 SOPHIE BEYANT. are two lines of characterisation which let us follow- further. With variations in the vividness of feeling from time to time we are all familiar, and we know that this does not vary simply with variations in the vividness of imagination. At one extreme is a peculiar deadness of feeling a state in which nothing seems to matter much, as if there were no subjective reaction at all except in so far as implied for cognition in the movements of attention. In this state it is as if we had withdrawn out of reach of the simple pleasure stimuli, were too far off to feel although we know them. There is no capacity for a thrill of pleasure or a twinge of pain. We can will and think correctly, but we hardly feel. In such case it will be found that the consciousness of self grows or has grown dim. It recedes, leaving the objective field clear and even vivid. From this field self is remote, as though it were a mere unconnected spectator of some show that might be happening anywhere, at any time, to any person. The deadness of feeling, in fact, deadens the sense of self in relation to the present moment. At the same time it may very well happen that when this state is consequent on mental shock the common case the consciousness of self as immersed in some part of the past should be quite vivid. The other case may happen also. A low susceptibility to feeling may, however, exist as their normal state in particular persons, giving the effect to others of a sort of subjective horniness or encrustation, and to them- selves of a dull immunity from thrill and twinge, of which occasional more vivid moments may make them conscious. The subjective reaction in them is habitually either cognitive or outwards towards the instincts in the main. They do not expend energy in mere feeling nor in its consequence, the free and playful discourse of imagination. Physiologically this may mean a brain so completely organised for definite re- action on the sensory organs and active members a wholly and stiffly instinctive brain so that there are no free parts, the general agitation of which gives a sounding board to the thin initial disturbance, and thus enables it to gather volume for the implication of the whole. Certainly the person of vivid feeling realises himself as responding in some massive as well as intimate way to his experiences. They pierce him ; he goes out to them and is himself in them. " His heart goes out," as the saying is. But here comes another distinction the response may be warm or cool, massive or thin : so far it is emotional, more or less. It may also involve or not involve, more or less, the instincts