CHAPTER V.

GROUP OF RESISTIVE, AGGRESSIVE, AND MALIGN EMOTIONS

AND PASSIONS.

THE emotional and passional states of the genetic instincts of Firmness, Combativeness, and Destructiveness form this group. It has three sub-divisions :

1. Resistive class: Determination, resolution, willfulness, stubborness, ill-temper, peevishness, moroseness, sulkiness, affirmation, and negation.

2. Aggressive class: Opposition, love of contention, pugnacity, defiance, indignation, courage, martial ardor.

3. Irascible and Malign class: Anger, rage, vengeance, revenge, wrath, hatred, antipathy, envy, malice, jealousy, raillery, sarcasm.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESISTIVE AND AGGRESSIVE EMOTIONS AND PASSIONS.

Mental. The resistive and aggressive emotions are pleasurable. They are mentally vigorous. The malign class are mentally vigorous but painful, except when gratified.

Physiological.-The action of the vital function is rendered vigorous by all the emotions of this group, except in the exhausted paroxysm of the malign emotions, when weakness and trembling have diminished vital action.

Expressional.-The expression is vigorous, the muscles of the face contract, indicating energy. The body is held rigid, braced, and all the attitudes are indicative of strength. The gestures are made straight from the body, toward the offending object, and, especially in the aggressive and malign class, with great violence.

THE RESISTIVE CLASS.

Firmness or Determination.-Firmness or determination gives strength and efficiency to all the mental states-emotional, intellectual, and passional. Its influence upon character is very marked; for it imparts stability to every virtue and consistency in action. The scripture says, "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." A person influenced by determination will be consistent in his actions, not vacillating; for this emotion exerts influence upon all the other emotions. If the aggressive passions hold sway their determination will give them persistency, and the person will combat until victory is gained. Should the love emotions arise determination will give them stabilty. Perseverance is an element in character due to firmness or determination. It is simply persistent or continuous determination.

In oratory firmness is valuable in many ways. It is valuable to the orator himself. If the orator advances his principles resolutely and persistently adheres to them his audience will estimate them accordingly. A man who oscillates between two opinions is never respected, whereas firmness and resolution often passes for wisdom. The firm tone, the decided manner convey the impression that the principles have been duly considered and the conclusion

reached; but a hesitating manner, or tone of voice, raises doubt in the minds of the listeners; besides it is expected when an orator presents himself before an audience that he comes prepared to tell to them the result of his study and meditation on the subject, not that he is only now considering it. If he hesitates and seems doubtful of his own principles, the men and women he addresses will be prone to consider that he has not duly weighed his thoughts, and they will refuse to follow what may be ill advised principles. Let him consider over again what he has to say. Why does he dare to give to us his unripened thoughts. Moreover, an orator should be firm in advocating his principles, also from psychological reasons. A resolute bearing and determined tone of voice indicate a commanding mind that overawes the irresolute and fickle, and commands the respect of the determined. If you are less firm than the majority of your audience they will soon find it out, and your persuasive power will be diminished accordingly. It is all very well to control your audience by manifesting the love emotions, but if these are not supported by the aggressive, resistive, and the self-regarding emotions, your persuasive power will be like a discarded razor, devoid of sharpness. Humility in a giant is respected, but in a dwarf it is regarded as weakness. So love, unsupported by the strong emotions, becomes mere sentimentality. In order to be sympathetic, loving, humble, and persuasive, you should have the power to be otherwise if you choose.

Then again the orator should seek to enlist the quality of firmness or determination, arising in the minds of his audience, in his own behalf. It is one thing to convince people of the righteousness of your cause and to arouse them to advocate it, and another

thing to influence them to persist in supporting it. To awaken emotions and passions in their minds, which for the present inflame them with desire to embrace your principles, is only half the battle. These emotions must be made permanent. This can be accomplished by arousing in their minds the feeling of determination. Only let resolution and determination take hold of your audience and your victory

is sure. An orator should therefore gradually work up his audience from conviction to emotion, from emotion to passion, from passion to action, and from action to determined persistence. This can be accomplished by a skillful arrangement of arguments; the weakest and intellectual first, next those that stir the feelings, then those which seem to satisfy all the qualities in man, and lastly firmness should be awakened-intensified by positive assertion and appeals to constancy and faithfulness.

Language. In studying men under the influence of determination or firmness the following signs appear: The brows knit firmly and a frown is visible, and the more determined the man becomes the more intense is the frown. The mouth is firmly closed. No determined man ever had an open mouth. The upper lip is drawn in stiff and straight. The whole body is thrown into a rigid condition, the lungs are filled with air, the breast firmly braced by the muscles of the chest. The foot is firmly planted and strikes the ground with the whole heel, not as in Combativeness sideways. There is a tendency to emphasize every word, and especially those most essential to the meaning. The words are struck out with a hard, clean-cut sound. There is a tendency to use the words "will" and "will not," and all negatives and affirmatives with great emphasis. The manner has a peculiar hardness, and the gait is characterized by stiffness and uprightness, while the foot is brought to the ground with a thrust or stamp of the heel. The tones of the voice are hard, firm, solid, and characterized by radical stress, high pitch, and falling inflection.

EXAMPLES OF DETERMINATION.

Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct which are worthy of a gentleman, or a man, are, to sacrifice estate, ease, applause, and even life, at the sacred call of his country.

You may, if it be God's will, gain our barren and rugged mountains. But, like our ancestors of old, we will seek refuge in wilder and more distant solitudes; and when we have resisted to the last, we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers. Ay, men, women, and children, we will be frozen into annihilation together, ere one free Switzer will acknowledge a foreign master!