The Foundations of Character: Being a Study of the Tendencies of the Emotions and SentimentsA scientific treatment should not diminish, but increase the general interest taken in character. To bring together the various aspects of the subject, which, in literature, are treated in isolation from one another; to lead up to a general conception of it; to study the methods by which the knowledge of it may be increased in accuracy and extent; these are to make approaches to a scientific treatment of character. While I have had chiefly to confine myself to a study of the tendencies of the emotions and sentiments, this has been, throughout, my aim. This book, then, is a study of method. Yet I do not claim that this method is essentially new. It is in the main the hypothetical method of the sciences; it has had to be adapted to the treatment of character: that is all. A complete science of mind would include a science of character. The best approach to such a science is through the study of the primary emotions and their connected instincts. This study is to be directed to an analysis of tendencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved). |
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Page xvii
... sensibility ( 1 ) range ; ( 2 ) quickness of response ; ( 3 ) delicacy ; ( 4 ) intensity , and ( 5 ) durability of ... Sensibility to Joy . The more the sensibility to joy approaches the widest possible range , the more it increases the ...
... sensibility ( 1 ) range ; ( 2 ) quickness of response ; ( 3 ) delicacy ; ( 4 ) intensity , and ( 5 ) durability of ... Sensibility to Joy . The more the sensibility to joy approaches the widest possible range , the more it increases the ...
Page xviii
... Sensibility to Joy . In proportion as the range of sensibility to joy , in respect of a given class of objects , is narrow , the love formed for any individual member of the class is constant , pp . 163–169 . — In proportion as the ...
... Sensibility to Joy . In proportion as the range of sensibility to joy , in respect of a given class of objects , is narrow , the love formed for any individual member of the class is constant , pp . 163–169 . — In proportion as the ...
Page 103
... sensibility , intensity and duration , varying from one person to another according to innate and acquired tempers . There are the qualities of the sentiments which , as organising their several emotions , require self - control , and ...
... sensibility , intensity and duration , varying from one person to another according to innate and acquired tempers . There are the qualities of the sentiments which , as organising their several emotions , require self - control , and ...
Page 130
... sensibility to anger , and the mode in which it is manifested , and the age at which the temper is clearly defined . It is the same with the other emotions . With fear there may be a relatively ' timorous ' or a ' fearless ' temper ...
... sensibility to anger , and the mode in which it is manifested , and the age at which the temper is clearly defined . It is the same with the other emotions . With fear there may be a relatively ' timorous ' or a ' fearless ' temper ...
Page 134
... sensibility , which is vivid and easily excited , can dwell long upon one object ; . . . the passions will be violent , the movements of the soul often abrupt and impetuous , the character firm and inflexible . Bold in conception of a ...
... sensibility , which is vivid and easily excited , can dwell long upon one object ; . . . the passions will be violent , the movements of the soul often abrupt and impetuous , the character firm and inflexible . Bold in conception of a ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquired action Adam Smith Animal Intelligence animals arouse become belong bodily cause chapter child concealment conduct consider constitution courage curiosity degree Descartes desire despair despondency directed disgust disposition distinguish effect emotional moods emotional system empirical laws enjoyment escape evoke excited exclude experience expression fact fear and anger feel flight forces fundamental forces G. F. Stout hate Hence hope human Ibid impulse influence innately connected kind La Rochefoucauld laws of association laws of character laws of mind manifested ment mental Mill's method misanthropy mood nature object observation offspring opposite organised pain particular passion phlegmatic present primary emotions primitive recognised reflex action relative ethics repugnance sanguine says science of character seems self-love sensations sensibility to joy situation sometimes sorrow stimuli surprise system of fear temper tendency tender emotion tends theory things thought tion varieties of fear variety of anger wonder young
Popular passages
Page 485 - Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory; But far beyond my depth : my high-blown pride At length broke under me ; and now has left me, Weary, and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Page 52 - A blank, my lord : She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek : she pined in thought ; And, with a green and yellow melancholy, She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief.
Page 356 - Oh, the wild joys of living ! the leaping from rock up to rock, The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver shock Of the plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of the bear, And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lair. And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over with gold dust divine, And the...
Page 306 - Low spirits are my true and faithful companions; they get up with me, go to bed with me, make journeys and returns as I do; nay, and pay visits, and will even affect to be jocose, and force a feeble laugh with me; but most commonly we sit alone together, and are the prettiest insipid company in the world.
Page 54 - Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Page 358 - For it so falls out, That what we have we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value...
Page 449 - And for the second, certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety of mind which resulteth from knowledge otherwise than merely by accident ; for all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself...
Page 352 - At this grief my heart was utterly darkened; and whatever I beheld was death. My native country was a torment to me, and my father's house a strange unhappiness; and whatever I had shared with him, wanting him, became a distracting torture. Mine eyes sought him everywhere, but he was not granted them; and I hated all places, for that they had not him; nor could they now tell me, "he is coming," as when he was alive and absent.
Page 358 - The idea of her life shall sweetly creep Into his study of imagination, And every lovely organ of her life Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit, More moving-delicate and full of life, Into the eye and prospect of his soul, Than when she liv'd indeed...
Page 325 - O that I were where Helen lies! Night and day on me she cries ; Out of my bed she bids me rise, Says "Haste and come to me!