A CLASSIFICATION OF FEELINGS, H. 517 and fixed one on one side of the line that I have drawn, and the other on the other ; and it is possible to show, moreover, that some such connotation as that which I have attached to them is already to some extent inherent in the terms. Thus, we speak of a man being devoted to another person or to a cause when he serves it without reward, show- ing that the person or cause served is regarded as passive so far as beneficence is concerned. On the other hand the feeling of Reverence does not imply action on the part of him who reveres, so that if there is any action between the two it is effected by him who is revered. (A reverent de- meanour is one which is as passive as possible ; it is not only passive but demonstratively so. Xot only is the body kept at rest when reverence is to be expressed, but it is placed in a position the furthest removed from that of incipient action. The head is bowed, the knees are bent, the hands are placed together.) So far, therefore, the vernacular use of the terms is in harmony with the meaning attached to them here. Both terms, however, are vaguely used, and it is not to be supposed that the majority of people would draw a distinc- tion between feelings so closely allied. But when things commonly confounded are for the purposes of science dis- tinguished, it becomes necessary to limit the denotation of trite terms, and so long as this alteration of meaning is avowed and the new limitation declared, no harm is done. Reference to Table II. (No. XXXV. 340) will show that the next two Genera of feelings are distinguished by the fact that the environmental circumstance with which they cor- respond is not an agent but an event. The difference is clear and is considerable, and the feelings of these genera are as distinct from those of the last as a state is distinct from a change of state. Events are divisible just as agents are, into those which are noxious and those which are bene- ficent, 1 and the feelings exhibit a corresponding division. Every event is a change from an antecedent state to a consequent state, and is beneficent if the consequent is the more favourable of the two, noxious if the antecedent is the more favourable. The amount of the change, that is to say, the amount of difference between the antecedent and the consequent, regulates the intensity of the feelings, while its position in time is the basis for their specific character. 1 There is a third group those that are neutral or indifferent but these do not primarily affect the conservation of the organism and are therefore excluded from the great Class of feelings that we are now con- sidering. They will be examined in their place in Class V.
