Emotion

(emoveo, to move out) "is often used as synonymous with feeling. Strictly taken, it means a 'state of feeling which, while it does not spring directly from an affection of body, manifests its existence and character by some sensible effect upon the body.' An emotion differs from a sensation by its not originating in a state of body; and from a cognition, by its being pleasurable or painful. Emotions, like other states of feeling, imply knowledge. Something beautiful or deformed, sublime or ridiculous, is known and contemplated; and on the contemplation springs up the appropriate feeling, followed by the characteristic expression of countenance, or attitude, or manner. In themselves considered, emotions can scarcely be called springs of action. 'The feelings of beauty, grandeur, and whatever else is comprehended under the name of taste, do not lead to action, but terminate in delightful contemplation, which constitutes the essential distinction between them and the moral sentiments, to which, in some points of view, they may doubtless be likened' (Mackintosh, Dissert. page 238). Emotions tend rather, while they last, to fix attention on the objects or occurrences which have excited them. In many instances, however, emotions are succeeded by desires to obtain possession of the objects which awaken them, or to remove ourselves from the presence of such objects. When an emotion is thus succeeded by some degree of desire, it forms, according to Lord Kames, a passion, and becomes, according to its nature, a powerful and permanent spring of action. Emotions, then, are awakened through the medium of the intellect, and are varied and modified by the conception we form of the objects to which they refer. Emotions manifest their existence and character by sensible effects upon the body. Emotions, in themselves and by themselves, lead to quiescence and contemplation rather than acaccity; but they combine with springs of action, and give to them a character and a coloring. What is said to be done from surprise or shame has its proper spring — the surprise or shame being concomitant" (Dr. Chalmers, Sketches of Mental and Moral Philosophy, page 88. — Fleming, Vocabulary of Philosophy, s.v.