Note 73 — Chapter IV · THE EMOTIONS

The interesting contributions to the psychology of acting, which have been brought together by Mr. William Archer in his Masks or Faces, do not give us much reliable information as to the part which the “expressional movements” play in a deliberate stirring up of an emotion. Even if we were to accept all the testimonies of actors and actresses as a testable evidence, we could scarcely decide whether the emotional state of an actor who plays his part in perfect sincerity is chiefly a result of his losing himself in the fictitious situation, or whether this state follows as a retroaction exercised by the artificial performance of weeping, laughing, sobbing, etc. Cf. Archer, Masks or Faces, pp. 133-136. Some interesting remarks on this point can also be found in Dugald Stewart’s Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, iii. pp. 168, 185.