Suspicion tends to destroy social intercourse, so far as we act upon it; and the wider it spreads the more it paralyses the life of the community which reposes on some degree of confidence between its members. It tends to prevent our being taken by surprise on the approach of danger by rendering us prepared in advance to adopt at the right moment the right action. Whatever the strength of suspicion as regards the conviction of evil intent on the part of the person suspected, suspicion tends to be emotionally strong, other things equal, in proportion as the evil anticipated concerns ourselves and those whom we love, and emotionally weak so far as it concerns other persons. Taking the expression of suspicion as an index of its emotional constitution, it is clear that both fear and anger,