CH. xxil] genesis of MAN, MORALLY. 327 



moral sense for analyzing which our individual experience 

 does not afford the requisite data, and which must there- 

 fore be regarded as ultimate for each individual, it is never- 

 theless open to us to inquire into the emotional antecedents 

 of this organized moral sense as exhibited in ancestral types 

 of psychical life. The inquiry will result in the conviction' 

 that the moral sense is not ultimate, but derivative, and that 

 it ha^ been built up out of slowly organized experiences ofl 

 pleasures and pains. 



But before we can proceed directly upon the course thus 

 marked out, it is necessary that we should determine what 

 are meant by pleasures and pains. What are the common 

 characteristics, on the one hand, of the states of conscious- 

 ness which we call pleasures, and, on the other hand, of the 

 states of consciousness which we call pains ? According to 

 Sir William Hamilton, " pleasure is a. reflex of the sponta- 

 neous and unimpeded exertion of a power of whose energy 

 we are conscious ; pain is a reflex of the overstrained or re- 

 pressed exertion of such a power." Tliat this theory, which 

 is nearly identical with that of Aristotle, is inadequate to 

 account for all the phenomena of pleasure and pain, has been, 

 I think, conclusively proved by Mr. INIill. With its complete 

 adequacy, however, we need not now concern ourselves ; as 

 we shall presently see that a different though somewhat allied 

 statement will much better express the facts in the case. 

 Hamilton's statement, however inadequate, is illustrated by 

 a number of truths which for our present purpose are of 

 importance. A large proportion of our painful states of 

 consciousness are attendant upon the inaction, or what 

 Hamilton less accurately calls the "repressed exertion," of 

 certain organic functions. According to the character of the 

 functions in question, these painful states are known as 

 cravings or yearnings. Inaction of the alimentary canal, 

 and that molecular inaction due to deficiency of Avater in the 

 system, axe attended by feelings of hunger and thirst, whicn 



