Chap. 9.] . Caufes of Pain. 45 5 



or agitation excited in us. There will remain little 

 doubt of the truth of this doctrine, if we confider that 

 light and heat in a moderate degree are productive of 

 pleafure, and in greater quantities hurt by their intenfe- 

 nefs ; that many acids, &c. which, when diluted, are 

 agreeable to the tafte, are highly painful when applied 

 pure and unmixed *. In fine, abfolute reft is the death 

 of fenfe. Motion is the very characteristic of animal 

 life : and moft of our intellectual as well as fenfible 

 pleafures feem to depend on a moderate increafe of 

 aftion. Recalling an old idea, which is connected 

 with a train of other ideas, is manifeftly pleafmg j 

 and this appears to refult from the gentle agitation 

 imparted to the organs of thought. " The mufic was 

 like the memory of joys that are paft, mournful, but 

 pleafant, to the foul." The pleafures of the imitative 

 arts, of figurative language, of the fublime, the beau- 

 tiful, and ftill more, the pleafures of variety, will meet 

 an eafy folution on this principle f. 



Of pains, fome are pofitive, as really affecting the 

 body , others only affecting the mind by being con- 

 nected 



* There is no one, of ever fo little underflanding in what 

 belongs to a human confthution, who knows not, that, without 

 action, motion, or employment, the body languifties ; and is op- 

 preffed, &c." " In the fame manner the fenfible and living part, 

 tbe foul or mind, wanting its proper and natural exercife, is bur- 

 thened and difeafed," &c. 



Shaftefiury Enq. Con. Virtue, b. ii. p. ii. f. i. 

 f This is to be underftood, however, as nothing more than an 

 attempt to account for the nature of pleafure and pain ; and, I own, 

 it appears to me the moft rational I have feen. The eftablifhment 

 or rejection of this do&rine will not affeft the truth of my general 

 principles; and I can ftart fairly with this felf-evident maxim, that 

 pleafure and pain are the effefts of certain impreflions on all our 

 fenfes, and that the cravings of the appetites are painful, and the 

 gratification of them admiriillers pleafure, 



I " Since the pains of feeling are far more numerous and vio- 

 lent than thofe of all our other fenfer put together, the greateft 

 G g 4 part 



