This is why we smile when others smile. Why a group of mourners makes us sad. Why we get caught up in someone else's fights. None of these feelings are anger, just like what we feel watching a shipwreck on stage isn't real sadness. Or when we read about Hannibal attacking Rome after Cannae — that's not real fear. These are just stirrings in minds that don't want to be disturbed. They're not full passions yet, but seeds that could grow into passions. A soldier will jump at a trumpet sound even when he's in civilian clothes during peacetime. War horses prick up their ears at the clash of weapons. They say when Xenophantus was singing, Alexander reached for his sword.
Hence it is that we smile when others are smiling, that a crowd of mourners makes us sad, and that we take a glowing interest in another's battles; all of which feelings are not anger, any more than that which clouds our brow at the sight of a stage shipwreck is sadness, or what we feel, when we read how Hannibal after Cannae beset the walls of Rome, can be called fear. All these are emotions of minds which are loth to be moved, and are not passions, but rudiments which may grow into passions. So, too, a soldier starts at the sound of a trumpet, although he may be dressed as a civilian and in the midst of a profound peace, and camp horses prick up their ears at the clash of arms. It is said that Alexander, when Xenophantus was singing, laid his hand upon his weapons.