3IO ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



It may feem furprifing that we, who not only have the ufe of all 

 the fenfes that the brutes have, but have intelled: befides, which they 

 have not, and likewife the enjoyment of every thing that the earth 

 produces, and dominion over all the other animals of this earth, 

 fliould not be happier than thofe other animals ; and particularly 

 that we Ihould not enjoy health, the greatefl; blefling, as I have 

 faid, here below, and the foundation of every other. But intellect, 

 which one (hould think fo great an advantage that we have over 

 other animals, is the reafon why we are Icfs happy : For our intel- 

 led, being imperfed, forms falfe judgments concerning happinefs ; 

 and it is by intelledt that we are governed, as it is effential to man, 

 as an intelligent creature, that he fhould be fo governed. Now, 

 as I have already obferved*, his intelled operates by what is called 

 his u<i/l ; and he wills a thing, becaufe he has formed an opinion 

 that it is good. But in this opinion he is very often deceived ; 

 for he imagines a thing to be good, becaufe it gives him pleafure : 

 Whereas, if his intelled were more perfed, he would know that 

 it is not pleafure that makes a thing good ; but, on the contrary, 

 that a thing may give pleafure for the prefent, which, fo far from 

 being good, produces a great deal of evil : For pleafure is not the 

 end, but only the means, which providence employs to excite us 

 to puifue what is good. Now there is nothing good with refped 

 to animals, but what conduces to the well-being of the individual 

 and to the continuation of the race j and it is to our energies, for 

 thofe two purpofes, that the wifdom and goodnefs of God has an- 

 nexed pleafure. But by a wrong ufe of our intelled we form an 

 opinion that pleafures of fenfe are our good : And accordingly the 

 yfe, we make of our fenfes, is to enjoy as much fenfual pleafure as 

 we poffibly can, without regard to the end for which thofe plea- 

 fures are intended, that is, as I have faid, the well-being of the in- 

 dividual and the continuation of the race. Now the brute, as he 



has 



* P. 287. 



