82 c. READ : ME. MERCIER'S CLASSIFICATION, ETC. For the same reason such a system can give little assistance to Sociology as not readily lending itself to the explanation of different types of national, or of savage, barbarous and civilised character. Hence it can throw little light upon the practical sciences of human life that depend upon these more theoretic sciences of human nature : I mean, it cannot much help us in Politics, Ethics, Education, Esthetic. Yet in these departments just views of the nature and relationships of our emotions are perhaps more important than of any other portions of our mental frame. Man, according to the paradox, is not a rational animal ; he is at least as much an emotional one. The arousing of emo- tion is to life at large what tact is to social intercourse, an in- stinctive guidance by clues too subtle and manifold for reason to follow or comprehend; it is character, confidence, virtue, hap- piness, the support and the reward of exertion, the cement of families and states. There is a well-known doctrine of Mr. Spencer's in relation to Ethics, that the gradual growth and organisation of the feelings, by coordinating the springs of our various activities, at last esta- blishes the moral control of action. The power of an emotion over action is, he says, great in proportion (1) to the number of elementary experiences from which it is derived, or to its repre- sentativeness ; and (2) to the degree of its integration, or the ease and certainty with which the whole emotion, if at all excited, comes into operation. The most representative feelings are the higher moral feelings; which, therefore, if sufficiently in- tegrated, would overpower every other and guide the whole career of life. If it were possible then to classify feelings ac- cording to their closest resemblances and alliances, the moral feelings would be exhibited in their relations to all beside, and a great deal of light would be cast upon Ethics. The same classification might subserve the theory of Education by exhibit- ing the scope and organisation of our emotional nature at several stages of life. And if it were possible to indicate by it the politi- cal character, some light would be thrown upon Politics. At least, by help of a judicious commentary, it might illustrate the variations of political character among primitive tribes, among despotic or among free nations, and even among the several parties of the same nation. And we might learn perhaps that to understand the nature and growth of emotion is to have a well- grounded hope for the future of mankind. For the growth of civilised character is that kingdom whose coming is without observation, and by a stealthy prevalence transforms and amelio- rates the world.
