Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/792

772 humble emotion. The instructive work of the Italian, M. Mosso, gives an excellent physiological study of the physical phenomena of fear, but is almost the only treatise that bears on the subject. It is our purpose to look at it from the point of view of general psychology, and of the relations of man with animals; and to inquire into the effects and causes of fear among all beings capable of feeling it.

We have, first, to describe the signs of fear and the physical phenomena that accompany it. With man, the testimony of his own consciousness is sufficient. With him fear may be wholly internal and translated by no apparent sign; but he can also afterward give account of his experiences. With animals the case is different. Their only language is their attitude. Our only resource for discovering the emotions by which they may be stirred is by the exterior signs they may give of them; and then we can only draw our conclusions by analogy. My horse all at once raises his head, droops his ears, shies, and starts on a gallop. There was a white cloth before him, and I conclude that he was afraid of it. Have I any right to draw such a conclusion? To affirm it with certainty in every particular, I would have—to use a vulgar expression—to be in his skin; for what I saw does not rigorously prove that my horse had a feeling identical with the one I am acquainted with from having suffered it myself, and which I call fear. Still, I have every reason for believing that the horse's feeling is of the same kind; for his attitude is the same when it thunders or when he hears a violent detonation, things which provoke fear in man; moreover, various other quadrupeds assume nearly the same attitudes when they are surprised by an unexpected object.

When we come to the lower animals it is extremely difficult to determine the operation of fear among them. When frogs hastily leap into the water and swim for their holes at the passing of any animal along the edge of the marsh, is it fear that has moved them? Very likely, although their physiognomy has not changed—for they have none and we are not able to pass any judgment with regard to the phenomena of consciousness they may have experienced. We all agree that something has affected them that resembles fear in man.

Fear acts in two ways. At times it paralyzes and makes motionless; at other times it excites and gives extraordinary strength. One person overcome by it remains fastened to the spot, pale and inert; his legs give way, and all his forces fail him. Another person scampers away like a rabbit. Fear gives him wings, and he abandons his unhappy companion, who is not able to move, while he has already put himself out of danger. At the same time special physical phenomena are manifested, which can not be described better than in the language of the poets and the common people. The hair stands out on the head; the body is seized with trembling and with a general shiver, and the teeth chatter so that they can be heard. The hands shake so that they can not grasp anything; the legs give way; a