Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/169

 BELIEF 151

Moreover, while the investigation is going on its points of agreement with our mental system are minimized and its points of disagreement magnified; points of disagreement are diligently sought for and points of agreement are not. Throughout the whole process, therefore, feeling is active and powerfully influences the action of the intellect. If the feeling aroused by the presentation is emphatically unpleas ant, it is rarely possible to keep the balances of the judgment even. Such an unpleasant feeling excites suspicion against the object, to begin with; acts as sheriff to arrest the sus pect ; then assumes the role of the detective to search out the damaging evidence; plays attorney for the prosecution; undertakes to weigh the evidence as juror, and even seeks to interpret the law as judge. It is omnipresent, urgent, subtilely influencing the proceedings at every stage. Pos sibly it becomes too busy and domineering and in the highly organized person may cause a reaction by awakening some counter-feeling, such as mental self-respect, or the love of truth for truth s sake, or the sense of justice ; and in this way only can the original feeling of displeasure evoked by the disagreeable idea or fact be checked and held within proper limits. But in persons whose mental development is not high, the feeling, pleasant or unpleasant, called forth by a presentation generally secures a verdict for or against it, unless the evidence the other way is overwhelming. The speaker who wishes to secure assent to a proposition will always find himself rowing against a powerful current, if it excites a decidedly disagreeable feeling. If, on the other hand, the feeling aroused is a distinctly pleasant one, he finds himself sailing both with wind and current in his favour. Such a decidedly agreeable feeling directs attention to its points of agreement with the system of ideas and diverts attention from its disagreements; underscores the former and leaves the latter unemphasized, even when they are too obvious to be wholly overlooked; searches for agreements, which it is likely to find because it seeks for them; and, unless by its excesses it starts into activity some counter-

�� �