Appetence and Emotion. 381 



in by a conscious creature, must be associated directly or 

 indirectly with pleasurable feelings ; nay, more, if it is to 

 be persistently persevered in, its non-performance must be 

 associated with that dull form of pain which we call a 

 craving or want. Only under such conditions could 

 activities which tend to the survival of the individual and 

 the race be fostered and furthered. 



It must be remembered, however, that such association 

 is founded on experience, and has no necessary validity 

 beyond experience. That quinine, though unpleasant to 

 the taste, is, under certain circumstances, beneficial to the 

 individual, and that acetate of lead, though sweet-tasted, 

 is harmful, cannot be fairly urged in opposition to this 

 principle, since the effects of these drugs form no part of 

 the normal experience of the individual and the race. Nor 

 can it be fairly objected that animals transported to new 

 countries often eat harmful and poisonous plants pre- 

 sumably because they are nice ; for these plants form part 

 of an unwonted environment. Nor, again, is the fact that 

 the association of pleasure with conservative action and 

 pain with harmful action is not always perfect, in any 

 sense fatal to the general principle. For the establishment 

 of the association is still in progress ; and with the increase 

 in the complexity of life its accurate establishment is more 

 and more difficult. No one is likely to contend that what 

 appears to be a general principle must also be an invariable 

 rule. The general principle is that under the joint in- 

 fluence of pleasure (attractive) and pain (repellent) the 

 needle of animal life sets towards the pole of beneficial 

 action. That the needle does not always point true only 

 illustrates the fact that life-activities are still imperfect. 



Let us notice that it is under the joint action of pleasure 

 and pain that the needle sets. We must not think only 

 of the positive aspect, and neglect the negative. What we 

 know as wants, cravings, appetites, desires, and dissatis- 

 factions, are dull and continuous pains,* which tend to 



* All of these, at any rate, satisfy Mr. Herbert Spencer's definition. 

 Pleasure he describes as a feeling which we seek to bring into consciousness 



