642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



modes of enjoyment more especially disparaged in tliis ascetic teach- 

 ing are of very questionable value. It may be doubted, for example, 

 whether much dancing, carried on into the small hours of the morning, 

 or much frequenting of hot and badly ventilated theatres, conduces to 

 a really pleasurable and efficient life. On the other hand, it deserves 

 to be remembered, perhaps, that society distinctly puts its mark of 

 approval on enjoyment by actually imposing the duty of pleasure- 

 seeking on its individual subjects. Many a delicate woman will attend 

 the social gayeties of the season because she is expected to enjoy herself 

 in this way ; and many a busy man will take his month or six weeks' 

 holiday at a fashionable pleasure resort, not because he desires the kind 

 of enjoyment offered, or even expects to realize it, but simply because 

 society tells him to act thus. What makes people neglect pleasure 

 much more than any form of ascetic prohibition is, we suspect, personal 

 indifference arising from inattention and preoccupation. More par- 

 ticularly in our busy age, men are very apt to be absorbed in some 

 exciting pursuit, so as to overlook the pleasurable resources of life. 

 Often this engrossing pursuit, though entered on at first from a motive 

 of pleasure, ceases to bring any appreciable enjoyment, and thus the 

 whole life becomes to a large extent robbed of its proper emotional 

 hue. Nor is this narrow and unreflecting disposition of opportunities 

 and energies simply a loss of so much enjoyment. It commonly results 

 in the accumulation of a large mass of pain. The non-satisfaction of 

 natural tastes and impulses pretty certainly brings a vague sense of 

 something wanting — a dreary feeling which depresses the mental tone 

 and throws a gloom on life. Add to this that the state of mental ab- 

 sorption in some one line of activity is highly favorable to a neglect of 

 all the many little circumstances which must cooperate in sustaining 

 health. The first indication of this inattention to health is probably a 

 development of abnormal nervous irritability. The temper is ruffled ; 

 sources of annoyance multiply, while those of gratification decrease in 

 the same ratio. The full development of this change is seen in a mo- 

 rose view of life, which has the same practical results as a professed 

 asceticism. There is a growing disposition to dwell on vexatious ele- 

 ments of experience, to nurse a sense of injury, and a corresponding 

 disinclination to seek enjoyment, or even to accept it, when close at 

 hand. 



It seems to us that this neglect of the conditions of a full and plea- 

 surable life is, as Mr. Spencer suggests, a thing to be severely depre- 

 cated on moral grounds. For there is no doubt that it leads in a 

 number of ways to the infliction of suffering on others. To have to 

 live with an irritable and gloomy person is probably as great an afflic- 

 tion as to be burdened with a painful illness. Accordingly, a man 

 who by inattention to the conditions of a cheerful frame of mind be- 

 comes the source of numberless vexations to his family may really 

 produce as much suffering as many a well-recognized criminal. It is 



