CHAPTER II 



THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF PLEASURE 



AND PAIN 



WHETHER the world as a whole is good or bad is a pro 

 blem of the utmost moment in its bearing on all beliefs, 

 both of religion and of ethics, that influence human con 

 duct. Even the abstract generalizations of science, when 

 it is concerned with the relations of man to outer nature, 

 are tinged and moulded, in a way that is not always sus 

 pected, by the views on this subject that are held in the 

 same age and society. Unfortunately, its attractions to 

 the philosopher are not on a level with its importance. It 

 gives no room for the exact treatment, or the certain con 

 clusions of science : its method offers no opening to dialectical 

 subtlety ; and the answer can never be more than a probable 

 belief. The result has been a disposition to economize labour 

 by accepting, without much inquiry, the prevalent opinion, 

 whatever that may be. 



In a controversy which has lasted since men began to 

 think, and which is concerned with facts of daily observa 

 tion, it might have been expected that the evidence was 

 very evenly balanced, and that, by this time, some approach 

 to an agreement had been arrived at ; or, at any rate, that 

 the advocates on either side would be unable to claim more 

 than a slight advantage for the views they championed. 

 A decided excess either of good or of evil could hardly have 

 escaped recognition. This expectation, however reasonable, 

 would be disappointed. Now, as always, the optimist 

 either denies altogether the existence of evil, or explains 

 it as a delusion, or admits it only as a vanishing quantity, 

 which is undeserving of notice at the present, and will 

 some day be entirely eliminated ; while the beliefs of the 

 pessimist with regard to good are equally extreme. It is 



