66 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
entirely neutral. But there are reasons to regard this judgment as inaccurate. For practical purposes, no doubt, some mental states may be treated as destitute of emotional meaning; but in scientific accuracy it is better to say that every state of consciousness has some feeling-tone, even though it be for the time a negligible factor. The point where the emotional colour of experience absolutely dis appears will be found to be the point where consciousness itself disappears. But it does not follow that there is a definite and fixed proportion between them ; for the inten sity of a state of consciousness does not always involve a corresponding intensity of feeling-tone. The intensity of the conscious state is only one of the several factors which determine the intensity of feeling. What those other fac tors are we shall seek to determine later ; at present we need only to remark that while strong feeling-tones imply intense states of consciousness, the converse may not be true, be cause in any given state of consciousness the feeling-tone is only one factor, and the several factors entering into any state of consciousness vary independently according to their own laws. Our only concern now is to insist that every state of consciousness has a certain tone of feeling. This is the peculiarly subjective phase, or reference, of every experience, its meaning for the self; and is always either pleasant or unpleasant. It is, therefore, the basis of our valuation of our experiences and of our attribution of values to the external objects of experience.
(2) As to feelings. A feeling should be distinguished from a feeling-tone. The tone of pleasantness or unpleas antness is a part, or a factor, of the feeling; and the other factor is a blended mass of organic sensations, i.e., sensa tions of changes or disturbances of the vital processes of the organism. This distinction, it seems to me, throws light upon some problems about which psychologists have been divided. Wundt and his followers, for instance, have claimed that every feeling may be located somewhere in each of three scales, or as he expresses it, every feeling
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