Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/135

 THE EXCITATION OF FEELING 1 1/

etc., do not necessarily express the feeling of a man and seem to bear no definite relation to the emotional life, although one can hardly divest himself of the impression that there is some indefinite relation between the two. But, however that may be, it is manifest that the speaker should be ex ceedingly careful as to this matter. His personal pecu liarities will inevitably impress his hearers in such a way as to assist or hinder the impression which he desires to make upon them. These personal peculiarities may awaken in them feelings which will effectively aid or wholly negative the proper emotional response which he wishes to induce in them. Even when he has the proper feeling himself, his unfortunate personal peculiarities may render it next to im possible for him to secure the proper emotional response from them. That is a sad spectacle, though it sometimes becomes sadly ridiculous. What should the preacher do in such circumstances? Get rid of the peculiarity, of course, if that be possible ; at any rate, by constant training and dis cipline reduce it to a minimum, and cultivate to the max imum whatever pleasure-exciting traits he may be endowed with. With this advice, let us pass to another and more irnportant element in delivery.

(2) The excitation of emotion by expression and com munication. We have seen that every feeling has a phys iological side the contraction of certain groups of mus cles. It has also been pointed out that the parts of the muscular system more immediately involved in feeling are those connected with the organic processes of circulation, respiration and secretion. The contraction of the sets of muscles controlling the organs by which we react upon the external world do not involve the purely psychical or con scious side of feeling, except as it may induce a tension or disturbance in the muscles controlling the more vital proc esses mentioned; and this it usually does. Now, while the contraction of the muscles controlling the externally acting organs may cause feeling by inducing disturbance in the central vital processes, it is also true that the internal organic

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