SIMPLE EMOTIONS. CHAPTER I. INSTINCTIVE EMOTIONS. Previous Analysis. It will be recollected that in the analysis which has been given of the sensibilities, they were arranged under three generic classes, viz., Simple Emotions, Affections, and Desires, all, however, having this in common, that they are in themselves agreeable or disagreeable, as states of mind, according as the object which awakens them. is viewed as either good or evil. Nature of simple Emotions. — Of these, the simple emotions, which are first to be considered, comprise, it will be remembered, that large class of feelings which, in their various modifications and degrees, constitute the joys and sorrows of life. They may be comprised, with some latitude of meaning, under the general terms joy and sorrow, as modifications of that comprehensive principle or phase of human experience. They are awakened in view of an object regarded as good or as evil; an object, moreover, of present possession and present enjoyment or suffering; in which last respect they differ from desires, which have respect always to some good, or apparent good, not in present pos session, but viewed as attainable. Division of simple Emotions. Of these simple emotions, again, some may be called instinctive, as belonging to the animal nature, and, to some extent, common to man with the brutes, in distinction from others of a higher order, involving or presupposing the exercise of reason and the reflective powers. It is of the former class that we are to treat in the present chapter. L-OF THAT GENERAL STATE OF THE MIND KNOWN AS CHEERFUL NESS; AND ITS OPPOSITE, MELANCHOLY. Nature of this Feeling.-There is a state of mind, of which every one is at times conscious, in which, without any immediately exciting cause, a general liveliness and joyous ness of spirit, seldom rising to the definiteness of a distinct emotion, a subdued under-current of gladness, seems to fill the soul, and flow on through all its channels. It is not so much itself joy, as a disposition to be joyful; not so much itself a visible sun in the heavens, as a mild, gently-diffused light filling the sky, and bathing all objects in its serene loveliness and beauty. It has been well termed “a sort of perpetual gladness." Prevalence at different Periods of Life.-There are those, of fortunate temperament, with whom this seems to be the prevailing disposition, to whom every thing wears a cheerful and sunny aspect. Of others, the reverse is true. In early life this habitual joyousness of spirit is more commonly prevalent; in advanced years, more rarely met with. Whether it be that age has chilled the blood, or that the sober experience of life has saddened the heart, and corrected the more romantic visions of earlier years, as life passes on we are less habitually under the influence of this disposition. It is no longer the prevailing frame of the mind. In the beautiful language of another, "We are not happy, without knowing why we are happy, and though we may still be susceptible of joy, perhaps as intense, or even more intense, than in our years of unreflecting merriment, our joy must arise from a cause of corresponding importance; yet eveD down to the close of extreme old age there still recur occa |