OCR Text |
Show 216 EXt>RESSlON OF LOVE, ETC. CltAP. VIII. P,ach other in their' arms. Afterwards they stood up, each with one arm on the shoulder of the other, lifted up their heads, opened their mouths, and yelled with delight. We Europeans are so accustomed to kissing as a mark of affection, that it might be thought to be innate in n1ankind; but this is not the case. Steele was mistaken when he said " Nature was its author, and it " began with the first courtship." J emmy Button, the Fnegian, told me that this practice was unknown in his land. It is equally unknown with the New Zealanders, Tahitians, Papuans, Australians, Somals of Africa, and the Esquimaux.22 But it is so far innate or natural that it apparent,ly depends on pleasure from close contact with a beloved person; and it is replaced in various parts of the world, by the rubbing of noses, as with the New Zealanders and Laplanders, by the rubbing or patting of the arms, breasts, or stomachs, or by one man striking his own face with the hands or feet of another. Perhaps the practice of blowing, as a mark of affection, on various parts of the body may depend on the same principle.23 The feelings which are cal1ed tender are difficult to analyse; they seem to be compounded of affection, joy, and especially of sympathy. These feelings are in ~hemselves of a pleasurable nature, excepting when pity 1s too deep, or horror is aroused, as in hearing of a tortured man or animal. They are remarkable under our p_resent point of view from so readily exciting the secretion of tears. Many a father and son have wept (r)ll 22 Sir J. ~~bbock, 'Prehistoric 'fimes,' 2nd edit. 1869, p. 552, gives full authontles fqr these statements. The quotation from Steele is taken from this work. • 23 See a full ~ccount, with references, by E. B. Tylor, ' Researches mto the Early History of Mankind,' 2nd edit. 1870, p. 51. CJtAP. VIII. EXPRESSION OF LOVE, ETC. 217 meeting after a long separation, especially if the meeting has been unexpected. No doubt extl·eme joy by itself tends to act on the lacrymal glands ; but on such occasions as the foregoing vague thoughts of tho grief which would have been felt had the father and son never met, will probably have passed through their 1ninds; and grief naturally leads to the secretion of tears. Thus on the return of Ulysses:- " Telemaclm ~ Hose, and clung weeping round his father's brca ·t. 'There the pent grief rained o'er them, yearning thus. * * * * * * Thus piteously they wailed in sore unrcRt, And on their wecpings had gone down the day, But that at last Tel machus found words to say." rVo1·sley's 1'ranslation of the Odyssey, Book xvi. ~t. 27. So again when Penelope at last recognised her husband:- " rrhen fronl her eyelids the quick tears did start And she ran to l1im from her place, and throw Her arms about his neck, and a warm dow Of kisses poured upon him, and thus spake :'' Book xxiii. st. 27. The vivid recollection of our fol'lner home, or of longpast happy days, readily causes the eyes to be suffuse<l with tears; but here, again, the thought naturally orcurs that t.he"'e days will never return. In snch cases we n1ay be said to sympathize with ourselves in our present, in comparison with our former, state. Sympathy with the distresses of others, even with the imaginary distresses of a heroine jn a pathetic story, for whom we feel no affection, readily excites tears. Qo does sympathy with the happiness of others, as with that of a lover, at last successful after many bard trials in a well-told tale. |