Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 9.djvu/349

 A CLASSIFICATION OF FEELINGS. 337 corresponding with the main classes of interactions with the environment of which the organism is capable, viz. : CLASS I. Those which primarily affect the conservation of the organism ; CLASS II. Those which primarily affect the perpetuation of the race ; [II. Those which primarily affect the common welfare ; CLASS IV. Those which primarily affect the welfare of others ; CLASS V. Those which are neither conservative nor destructive ; and CLASS VI. Feelings corresponding with relations between interactions. CLASS I. The first great group of feelings, including those that correspond ivith interactions that primarily subserve or oppose tJie conservation of the organism, subdivides into two secondary groups, characterised by the way in which the interaction begins. One of the Sub-classes of feelings corre- sponds with actions that are initiated by the environment, the other corresponds with actions that are initiated by the organism. Each of the secondary groups thus formed is again divided according to the third of the principles already set forth the directness or indirectness of the correspondence into two tertiary groups, which we may term Orders. So that of the first great class of feelings four well characterised divisions present themselves for examination. These we may now take in detail, seriatim. Sub-class I. feelings that correspond with interactions prima- rily affecting the conservation of the organism which are initiated by the environment. Order I. Tlie correspondence is direct. When thermal undulations impinge upon the surface of the organism ; when a body comes in contact with the skin ; when a chemical change takes place in a mucous membrane ; when sonorous undulations strike upon the tym- panum, or etherial undulations on the retina, in such cases a feeling arises which corresponds directly in duration, in intensity and in volume with the action of the environment on the organism, and such feelings are termed Sensations. Sensations are to a large extent unconditional. If the action takes place the feeling necessarily arises, the bodily structure being supposed normal. The action taking place on what is physiologically the surface of the organism, there is a minimum of opportunity for the introduction of the intel- lectual element, intelligence arising only when the corre- spondence between the organism and the environment begins to extend in space. Whatever part cognition plays in the process is therefore subordinate. Feelings of this simple character can exist in the absence of almost every trace of cognition, and where cognition exists, it is in every case secondary to the feeling. These relations to cognition hold