05 



Tar be it from me to say, that the course of instruction 

 which leads us to the exercise of virtue is prejudicial, or to be 

 lamented, especially when it cannot be absolutely proved to be 

 incorrect. We may, however, be allowed to inquire into the 

 grounds upon wlrich we have gone, and to examine the 

 strength of the foundation upon wlrich the superstructure 

 has been raised, without necessarily destroying either. In 

 prosecuting tliis inquiry, we shall have, in the first place, to 

 form some definite notion of what we mean by the word pain; 

 secondly, to inquire into the means we have for ascertaining 

 its existence in those who are not able to communicate to us in 

 words ; and thirdly to examine how far the knowledge of pain 

 is a mental act, and so dependent upon the faculty of con- 

 sciousness. 



"It is extremely difficult to give a definition of the word 

 pain, inasmuch as it has not a physical existence which we can 

 recognise by external signs. Those who have suffered from it 

 soon learn to recognise it in themselves ; but they cannot 

 explain what it is to any one who has never felt it, any more 

 than they could give to a blind man a notion of the difference 

 between red, and blue, and yellow. We cannot hear it, see it, 

 smell it, taste it, and in one sense we cannot feel it; and we, 

 therefore, can only judge of its existence in others by the 

 effects it usually produces upon those who are under its 

 influence. 



"It may thus be classed in the category of all human 

 passions, the presence of winch are only to be recognised by the 

 words or actions to which they prompt. 



" We cannot, however, live long in the world without find- 

 ing that certain passions may be present in the human mind 

 without having any external manifestation; or that there may 

 be a full outward delineation of the effects of a passion with- 

 out its having any real existence. Hatred, jealousy, and 

 avarice, may be concealed successfully ; while love and anger 

 may be as successfully feigned. • What is true of the one, 



