Footnotes have been collected at the end of the text, and arelinked for ease of reference.
The cover image has been created from title page and publication dataand is place in the public domain.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Pleasesee the transcriber’s note at the end of this textfor details regarding the handling of any textual issues.
Any corrections are indicated using an underlinehighlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce theoriginal text in a small popup.
Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate thereader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in thenote at the end of the text.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
THE EMOTIONS
PREFACE.
The psychology of states of feelings, it is generallyrecognised, is still in a confused and backward condition.Although it has benefited in some measureby the contemporary allurement of psychologicalresearch, it must be acknowledged that it has onlyexerted a moderate seduction upon workers; thepreference has been given to other studies, such asthose of perception, of memory, of images, of movement,of attention. If any proof is necessary wemay find it in the bibliographies, now published inGermany, America, and France, which give thepsychological inventory of each year; of the wholenumber of books, memoirs, and articles which appear,less than the twentieth part, on an average, relatesto the feelings and emotions. It is a very smallpart compared to the part played by the emotionsand passions in human life, and this region ofpsychology is not deserving of such neglect. It istrue that in recent years W. James and Lange seemto have brought this state of stagnation to an end.Their thesis, paradoxical in appearance, has aroused,especially in America, many discussions, criticisms,defences, and, what is of more value, observationsand researches.
viIt must be acknowledged that for those who haveany care for precision and clearness the study ofthe feelings and emotions presents great difficulties.Internal observation, always an uncertain guidewhi