The author criticizes McDougall's theory of the connection between emotion and instinct and would distinguish a certain class of 'value' emotions aroused by the appreciation of the intrinsic values of goodness, beauty and truth and ultimately of the summum bonum. Such emotions, he considers, cannot be wholly accounted for in terms of instinctive origin.

We are not however given much positive information concerning these emotions, and it is very doubtful whether the arguments advanced will appear convincing to a follower of McDougall (or indeed to any believer in the continuity of mental evolution), for the very important effects on emotional life of sentiment formation are only very imperfectly considered.