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business of the educator and the moralist is to counterwork them, as being fraught with unalloyed evil.

Being a fitful or explosive passion, Anger should, as far as possible, be checked or controlled in the young; but there are no adequate means of doing so short of the very highest influence of the parent or the teacher. The restraint induced by the presence of a dread superior at the time does not sink deep enough to make a habit; opportunities are sought and found to vent the passion with safety. The cultivation of the sympathies and the affections is what alone copes with angry passion, whether we take it as a disturber of equanimity, or as the prompter of wrong. The obverse of illtemper is the disposition that thinks less of harm done. to self, and more of harm done to other people; and if we can do anything to foster this disposition, we thereby reduce the sphere of malignant passion. The collateral incentives to suppress angry passion include, besides the universal remedy of disapprobation, an appeal to the sense of personal dignity and to the baneful consequences of passionate outbursts.

The worst form of malignant feeling is cold and deliberate delight in cruelty; all too frequent, especially in the young. The torturing of animals, of weak and defenceless human beings, is the spontaneous outflow of the perennial fountain of malevolence. This has to be checked, if need be, at the expense of considerable severity. The inflictions practised on those that are able to recriminate generally find their own remedy; and the discipline of consequences is as effectual as any. By having to fight our equals, we are taught to regulate our wrathful and cruel propensities.

The intense pleasure of victory contains the sweetness of malevolence, heightened by some other ingredients. The prostration and destruction of an enemy or a rival is, no doubt, the primary situation where malevolent impulses had their rise; and it continues to be perhaps the very strongest stimulant of the human energies. Notwithstanding its several drawbacks, we are obliged to give it a place among motives to study and mental advancement. In the fight and struggle of party contests, the pleasure of victory enters in full flavour; and in the competitions at school, the same motive is at work. The social problem of restraining individuals in their selfish grasping at good things—the mere agreeables and exemptions of the senses—is rendered still more intractable by the craving for the smack of malevolent gratification. Total repression has been found impossible; and ingenuity has devised a number of outlets that are more or less compatible with the sacredness of mutual rights.

One chief outlet for the malevolent impulses is the avenging of wrong, whether private or public. A convicted wrongdoer is punished by the law, and the indignation roused by the crime turns to gratification at the punishment. In the theory of penal retribution some allowance is claimed for the vindictive satisfaction of the public. To think only of the prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals, suppressing all resentful feeling, is a thing too severe and ascetic for human nature as at present constituted. The privacy of the punishments of criminals, in our modern system, is intended to keep the indulgence within bounds.

A wide ideal scope is given to our resentful pleasures

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in history and in romance; we are gratified by the retribution inflicted upon the authors of wrong. Narratives of evildoers and of their punishment are level to the meanest capacity; this is the sort of history that suits even the imagination of children.

The highest refinement of the malevolent gratification I take to be the emotion called the Ludicrous and the Comic. There is a laugh of vindictiveness, hatred, and derision, that carries the sentiment as far as it can be carried without blows. But there is also the laugh expressed by Playfulness and Humour, in which the malignant feeling seems almost on the point of disappearing in favour of the amicable sentiment. It is of some importance to understand that in play, fun, and humour there is a delicate counterpoise of opposing sentiments, an attempt to make the most of both worlds

-Love and Anger. The great masterpieces of humour in literature, the amenities of everyday society, the innocent joyousness of laughter-all attest the success of the hazardous combination. Nothing could better show the intensity of the primitive charm of malevolence than the unction that survives after it is attenuated to the condition of innocent mirthfulness. When the real exercise of the destructive propensity is not to be had, creatures endowed with emotions still relish the fictitious forms. This is seen remarkably in the amicable 'play' of puppies and kittens. Not being endowed with much compass of the caressing acts, they show their love by snarling and sham biting; in which, through their fortunate self-restraint, they seem to enjoy a double pleasure. In the play of children there is the same employment of the forms of destructive malevolence, and, so long as

it is happily balanced, the effect is highly piquant. By submitting in turn to be victimized, a party of children can secure, at a moderate cost to each, the zest of the malevolent feeling; and this I take to be the quintessence of play.

The use of this close analysis is to fix attention upon the precarious tenure of all these enjoyments, and to render a precise reason for the well-known fact that play or fun is always on the eve of becoming earnest; in other words, the destructive or malevolent element is in constant danger of breaking loose from its checks, and of passing from fictitious to actual inflictions. The play of the canine and the feline kind often degenerates in this fashion; and in childish and youthful amusements it is a perpetual rock ahead.

It is no less dangerous to indulge people in too much ideal gratification of the vindictive sentiments. Tales. of revenge against enemies are too apt to cultivate the malevolent propensity. Children, it is true, take up this theme with wonderful alacrity; nevertheless, it is a species of pampering supplied to the worst emotions instead of

the best.

One other bearing of Irascibility on Education needs to be touched upon. When disapproval is heightened with Anger, the dread inspired is much greater. The victim anticipates a more severe infliction when the angry passion has been roused; hence the supposition is natural that anger is an aid to discipline. This, however, needs qualifying. Of course any increase of severity has a known deterrent effect, with whatever drawbacks may attend the excess. But anger is fitful; and, therefore, its co-operation mars discipline by want

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of measure, and want of consistency; when the fit has passed, the mind often relapses into a mood unfavourable to a proper amount of repression.

The function of anger in discipline may be something very grand, provided the passion can be controlled. There is a fine attitude of indignation against wrong that may be assumed with the best effect. It supposes the most perfect self-command, and is no more excited than seems befitting the occasion. Mankind would not be contented to see the bench of Justice occupied by a calculating machine that turned up a penalty of five pounds, or a month's imprisonment, when certain facts. were dropped in at the hopper. A regulated expression of angry feeling is a force in itself. Neither containing fitfulness, nor conducting to excess of infliction, it is the awe-inspiring personation of Justice, and is often sufficient to quell insubordination.

The Emotion of Power.

The state named the feeling or emotion of Power expresses a first-class motive of the human mind. It is, however, shown, with great probability, not to be an independent source of emotion. It very often consists of a direct reference to possessions or worldly abundance. In other cases, I cannot doubt that the pleasure of malevolent infliction is an element. The love of domineering, or subjecting other people's wills, would be much less attractive than it is, if malevolent possibilities were wholly left out.

Power in the actual is given by bodily and mental superiority, by wealth, and by offices of command.