y with their feelings:
these are less enduring than those of civilized men. There are, however,
qualifications to be made in this statement; and comparisons are needed
to ascertain how far these qualifications go. The savage shows great
persistence in the action of the lower intellectual faculties. He is
untiring in minute observation. He is untiring, also, in that kind of
perceptive activity which accompanies the making of his weapons and
ornaments: often persevering for immense periods in carving stones, &c.
Emotionally, too, he shows persistence not only in the motives prompting
these small industries, but also in certain of his passions--especially
in that of revenge. Hence, in studying the degrees of mental variability
shown us in the daily lives of the different races, we must ask how far
variability characterizes the whole mind, and how far it holds only of
parts of the mind.

6. _Impulsiveness._--This trait is closely allied with the last:
unenduring emotions are emotions which sway the conduct now this way and
now that, without any consistency. The trait of impulsiveness may,
however, be fitly dealt with separately, because it has other
implications than mere lack of persistence. Comparisons of the lower
human races with the higher, appear generally to show that, along with
brevity of the passions, there goes violence. The sudden gusts of
feeling which men of inferior types display, are excessive in degree as
they are short in duration; and there is probably a connexion between
these two traits: intensity sooner producing exhaustion. Observing that
the passions of childhood illustrate this connexion, let us turn to
certain interesting questions concerning the decrease of impulsiveness
which accompanies advance in evolution. The nervous processes of an
impulsive being, are less remote from reflex actions than are those of
an unimpulsive being. In reflex actions we see a simple stimulus passing
suddenly into movement: little or no control being exercised by other
parts of the nervous system. As we ascend to higher actions, guided by
more and more complicated combinations of stimuli, there is not the same
instantaneous discharge in simple motions; but there is a comparatively
deliberate and more variable adjustment of compound motions, duly
restrained and proportioned. It is thus with the passions and sentiments
in the less developed natures and in the more developed natures. Where
there is but little emotional co