The above adduced instances show us that even the art of primitive man does not bear out the views recently brought into prominence by Herckenrath and Faguet (Faguet, Drame ancien, drame moderne, pp. 2, 7, 12), and so ably stated by Mr. Walkley (Frames of Mind, pp. 1-7), according to which the enjoyment of tragedy as well as that of comedy can be reduced to a malevolently pleasurable consciousness of our own security in contrast to the sufferings of others. Comparative psychology tends far more to support those authors who contend that in tragedy we enjoy that pleasure which inherently exists in sorrow itself. Cf. Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, p. 35.
[81] Lobeck, Aglaophamus, i. p. 688. “De hoc universo genere dicere licet id quod res habet, hominis naturae quodam instinctu ut laetandi ita lugendi causas sibi fingere; unde est, quod aliena funera sequuntur, quod ignotis sepulchris adsident, quod praeteritorum malorum memoriam refricant.”
[82] Lessing, Gelehrter Briefwechsel, pp. 145, 146, quoted in Bernays’ Zwei Abhandlungen, p. 144. Cf. also Scherer, Poetik, p. 112. Scherer, who thinks that the phrase “Bewusstsein unserer Realität” is too abstract in its wording, proposes in its place “Freude an uns selbst” (delight in ourselves).
[83] Helvetius, De l’esprit, discours iii. ch. v.
[84] Jefferies, The Story of My Heart, especially p. 128; Bashkirtseff, Journal, ii. pp. 126, 531, 532; cf. also i. pp. 66, 67; ii. pp. 115, 290.
[85] The purely pathological motives of the self-woundings of Christian fanatics appear with unmistakable clearness from the instances that have been collected in medical literature, cf. especially Calmeil, De la folie, ii. pp. 327, 328, 375-380, 384, 404, 405; Figuier, Hist. du merveilleux, i. pp. 372, 373, 376, 379; Stoll, Suggestion und Hypnotismus, pp. 362-365. We need not dwell in this connection upon the sexually exciting effects which may be created by flagellation. This point has been sufficiently elucidated by the above-mentioned authors.
[86] Lange, Gemüthsbewegungen, pp. 33, 34.
[87] Wundt, Philosophische Studien, vi. pp. 351, 352 (Zur Lehre von Gemüthsbewegungen).
[88] Brinton, The Pursuit of Happiness, p. 18.
[89] Kierkegaard, Enten Eller, i. pp. 23, 24.