NewThoughtLibrary.com / DivineLibrary.org

the intuitive faculty comes in to complete and seal the work in the discernment of a new and distinct quality that of right. The proposition is said to be true, the statue is seen to be beautiful, the action is pronounced right, and forthwith there arise many sentiments which find their spring in these ideas. These are the spiritual feelings. Their immediate dependence is on the mind's intuitive action; their secondary dependence, on our intellectual faculties. Our intellectual feelings, on the other hand, find their immediate source in mental action, in the conclusions of experience, and their ultimate ground in the appetites and tastes.

These feelings again are open to the same division into pleasurable, indifferent and painful emotions. This relation of the feelings to happiness must necessarily be a fundamental distinction of all the emotions. Their relation to action may be said to be secondary to their relation to enjoyment, since action itself is undertaken or withheld in view of its immediate or ultimate effects on the sensibilities. The feelings can only be classified by their external relations, since, intrinsically, they are all diverse, all simple original states, known in experience only. Of the external relations of the feelings, this relation to happiness is most essential, while that to action comes next in order, both as indicating an immediate purpose served by our sensibilities and their secondary effects on our character and well-being. In their connection with action, the spiritual feelings assume a more imperative character than either of the other two classes. In those, feelings enter to stimulate and gratify effort, or check and discourage it; here, they go before it as well to command as to forbid action. They cease merely to allure, and seek decisively to enjoin and prohibit different lines of conduct. The middle ground of indication seems narrowed to a point, and to be pressed closely on