Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Pleasure, either in haud or in reversion, life is no blessing, nor existence worth owning. If I have nothing which delights me in my being, the very sense of it must be unacceptable, and then I had better be without it. He that can prove himself something by no other argument than pain, would be glad to be rid of the conclusion. Το suppose that misery is preferable to not being, is, I believe, the wildest thought that ever entered the imagination. A very short fit of torture and despair would convince the most obstinate, and though there are degrees of happiness or misery, there is no mean between them: we must feel one or the other. That, which some philosophers call indolence, is properly a state of pleasure; for, though the satisfaction may be somewhat drowsy, yet, like the first approaches of sleep, it strikes smooth and gently upon the

sense.

Pleasure is the last and furthest intent of every human action. From this motive, the husbandman labours, and the soldier fights, and all the hazards and difficulties of life are undergone. Wealth, and honour, and power, are only desirable, as they minister to satisfaction: they feed our appetites, and execute our will, and make us valuable in our own opinion, and in that of our neighbours. These services they

promise at least, which makes them so earnestly desired. It is pleasure which reconciles us to pain. Who would submit to the nauseousness of medicine or the torture of the surgeon, were it not for the satisfaction of recovering our limbs and our health? Pleasure is pursued where it seems most renounced, and aimed at even in selfdenial. All voluntary poverty, all the discipline of penance, and the mortifications of religion, ! are undertaken with this view. A good man is contented with hard usage at present, that he may enjoy pleasure in the other world. In short, to dispute the desirableness of pleasure, is to deny experiment, and contradict sensation.

But there needs no more to be said in recommendation of pleasure. The greatest danger is, lest we should value it too much. The season, the object, and the proportion, are all circumstances of importance: a failure in any of them spoils the entertainment. He that buys his satisfaction at the expence of duty and discretion, is sure to over-purchase. When virtue is sacrificed to appetite, repentance must follow, and that is an uneasy passion. All unwarrantable delights have an ill end, and destroy those that are greater. The principal reason why we are subject to restraint, is, because an unbounded liberty would undo us. If we examine religion,

we shall find few actions forbidden, but such as are naturally prejudicial to health, to reason, or to society.

The general division of pleasure is into that of the mind and of the body. The former is more valuable upon several accounts.

The causes of mental enjoyments are more reputable than the other. Corporeal pleasures are comparatively ignoble; they seem founded in want and imperfection. There must be something of uneasiness to introduce them, and make them welcome. When the pain of hunger is once over, eating is a heavy entertainment. The senses are some of them so mean, that they scarce relish any thing but what they solicit. But rational delights have a better origin: they spring from noble speculations, or generous actions; from enlargement of knowledge, or instances of virtue; from something which argues worth, and virtue, and improvement.

The satisfactions of the mind are more at command. We may think of a handsome performance, or an agreeable idea at our leisure. This entertainment is ready with little warning or expence. A short recollection brings it upon the stage, brightens the idea, and makes it shine as much as when it was first stamped upon the memory. Thoughts take up no room; where

they are right, they afford a portable pleasure. We may travel with them without incumbrance or trouble.

The case with the body is much otherwise; here the satisfaction is more confined to a circumstance of place, and moves in a narrower compass. We cannot have a pleasant taste or smell, unless the object and the sense are near together; a little distance makes the delight withdraw and vanish like a phantasm. There is no perfuming the memory, or regaling the palate with the fancy. We have indeed some faint notion of these absent delights, but it is derived from imagination, and not from sense. I grant the eye and the ear command farther, but still these have their limits; and besides, they can only reach an object present, but not make it so. Whereas the mind by a sort of magic, raises the ghost of a departed pleasure, and makes it appear without any dependence upon space or

time.

To go no higher than the standard of humanity, methinks the satisfactions of the mind are of a brighter nature, and appear with distinguishing greatness. There is nothing of hurry and mistiness in them. The perceptions are all clear, and stay for perusal and admiration. The scene is dressed up like a triumph, the fancy is

VOL. I.

illuminated, and the show marches on with dignity and state. If the senses have any, it lies in the strength of the impression; but this point may be fairly disputed. When the mind is well awakened and grown up to the pleasures of reason, they are strangely affecting. The luxury of thought seems no less than that of the palate; the discovery of a great invention may be as moving as epicurism. The entertainments of Plato were as highly seasoned as those of Apicius. Archimedes passed his time as pleasantly as Sardanapalus; and the charms of authority made Cato aver, that old age was none of the most undiverting periods of life.

The senses are not sufficiently strong for any great force of pleasure. A sudden excess of joy has sometimes proved mortal. It is as dangerous as gunpowder, charge too high, and you split the barrel; it flashes too hard upon the tender organ, and stupifies rather than pleases.

The body was not made to be our master, as may appear from self denial, which has a mixture of something agreeable. It is a pleasure to arrest an importunate appetite; to silence the clamour of a passion, to repel an assault upon our virtue, is a noble instance of force, a handsome proof of temper and discretion. A brave mind must be entertained by surveying its conquests,

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »