THE NATURE OF PLEASURE AND PAIN. 685 



It appears to us that, by a psychological interpretation of physio- 

 logical facts, these laws can be reduced to one superior and really 

 primitive law. Some have sought the meaning of the law of propor- 

 tion, which demands that the positive labor of exercise bear a just 

 relation with the negative labor of reparation, in the theory of a just 

 mean, or a kind of golden mediocrity, by which the fundamental law 

 of sensibility would be equilibrium, not action pure and simple. This 

 is confounding the limit of a thing with its essence. Moderation, in 

 itself, is not pleasure, nor the primitive law of life. It is a necessity 

 which life encounters and submits to according to the needs of the 

 organism. The true primary law is that pleasure is connected with 

 the most intense possible activity ; and this is, besides, the true con- 

 dition of superiority in the struggle for existence. For this reason, if 

 the increase of the activity or of the exercised function does not ex- 

 ceed the reserve of forces and wear upon the organ, the pleasure in- 

 creases with the activity, without regard to moderation. If excess of 

 muscular motion produces pain, it is because, not proportioning our 

 actions to the strength of our organs, we wear upon them. The sup- 

 posed increase of activity is then really a diminution. 



Another problem is met in seeking the reason for the necessity of 

 a change of action, for which contemporary psychologists, like Mr. 

 Bain and Mr. Sully, have propounded the law of contrast as opposed 

 to the laws of stimulation and moderation. It is in reality, however, 

 derivable from the same principle as the other law. Change in action 

 is only a means of assuring continued intensity of action. It makes 

 other nerves to work while the former ones rest, and, effecting a sepa- 

 ration of the nerves after this manner, augments the vital power. 



To enjoy is, then, to act as much as possible with the greatest 

 intensity, independence, and liberty. Activity, by itself, goes on infi- 

 nitely. It moderates itself only by necessity and constraint, only to 

 have afterward to moderate itself less, and to deploy itself beyond all 

 the limits successively erected before it. 



It might say, with Faust : " If ever I stretch myself, calm and com- 

 posed, upon a couch, be then at once an end of me. If thou canst ever 

 flatteringly delude me into being pleased with myself if thou canst 

 cheat me into enjoyment be that day my last. If I ever say to the 

 passing moment, ' Stay, thou art so fair ! ' then mayst thou cast me 

 into chains ; then I will readily perish ; then may the death-bell toll ; 

 . . . the clock may stand, the index hand-may fall ; be time a thing 

 no more for me." 



Activity changes, therefore, only to maintain itself, to adapt itself 

 progressively to the medium which changes, to increase its conquests 

 without losing its acquisitions. In the evolution of species, this ex- 

 pansion of activity has always been a condition of survival and of 

 superiority over other species. 



Some authors have maintained that the final intensity of the action 



