114 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



more intense, and more easily excited (for it is a mistake 

 to suppose that it takes more to make him happy), so 

 also are his pains. But, as his pains resemble his pleasures 

 in all other respects, there is a very strong presumption 

 that if one differs in quality, so also does the other, and that 

 the more attractive quality of the pleasures is neutralized 

 by the more objectionable quality of the pains. Both his 

 pleasures and his pains are then appreciably higher in all 

 respects, quality included, and there is not the slightest 

 ground for supposing that if they were compared, and one 

 subtracted from the other, any greater balance either of 

 pleasure or of pain would be left over than there would be 

 if the same operation were performed with the pleasures 

 and pains of the inferior ; or that, in the case either of the 

 superior or of the inferior, there would be a net balance 

 of either feeling, even if it were possible to take qualities 

 into account. 



Another difficulty is to obtain a competent judgement 

 on the relative merits of the pleasures of the superior in 

 dividual when compared with those of the inferior. The 

 inferior may object that the being of superior faculties 

 is not a good judge of what he is pleased to call the lower 

 kinds of pleasure, and in this there appears to be a good 

 deal of justice. A philosopher has no more distinct an 

 idea of the feelings of a savage than the savage has of his, 

 and there are some very keen enjoyments, such as the delight 

 in butchery, which he is altogether unable to appreciate. 

 The comparison of one s feelings with those of another is 

 unconvincing. Bill Sikes would not exchange his own 

 capacities for enjoyment with those of a man of genius. 

 Each man must judge of his own pleasures, and endeavour 

 to ascertain, by an examination of his own feelings, which 

 are the stronger, and why he prefers one line of conduct to 

 another. I believe that a man who did this would be unable 

 to escape the conclusion that the feeling tone which attends 

 the satisfaction of the lower is incomparably stronger than 

 that which attends the satisfaction of the higher impulses. 

 This he might explain by the reflection that no kind of 



