ABSTRACT
The change from a general feeling like suspense into the specific emotion of curiosity serves well to show the part played by cognition in this development of the various emotions. A theory of emotion somewhat similar, though not based on physiological experiment, has been, some forty years ago, put forward independently by William James in America, and by Lange in Denmark. They suggested that instead of regarding the various physical manifestations that accompany emotion—sudden changes in the rate of heart-beat or breathing, laughter, tears, shouting, frowning, clenching the fists, and so on—as the result of emotion. The common sense of mankind has more contempt for the sentimentalist and the dreamer than for the sensualist or the bookworm. Where powers are vigorously used, even if only in the service of the animal instincts or within a comparatively narrow range, there is the stir of life and, consequently, hope for further development.
