it has come to pass that suffering readily causes the secretion of tears, without being necessarily accompanied by any other action. Although in accordance with this view we must look at weeping as an incidental result, as purposeless as the secretion of tears from a blow outside the eye, or as a sneeze from the retina being affected by a bright light, yet this does not present any difficulty in our understanding how the secretion of tears serves as a relief to suffering. And by as much as the weeping is more violent or hysterical, by so much will the relief be greater, -- on the same principle that the writhing of the whole body, the grinding of the teeth, and the uttering of piercing shrieks, all give relief under an agony of pain. [page] 186 CHAPTER VII. LOW SPIRITS, ANXIETY, GRIEF, DEJECTION, DESPAIR. General effect of grief on the system -- Obliquity of the eyebrows under suffering -- On the cause of the obliquity of the eyebrows -- On the depression of the corners of the mouth. AFTER the mind has suffered from an acute paroxysm of grief, and the cause still continues, we fall into a state of low spirits; or we may be utterly cast down and dejected. Prolonged bodily pain, if not amounting to an agony, generally leads to the same state of mind. If we expect to suffer, we are anxious; if we have no hope of relief, we despair. Persons suffering from excessive grief