CHAP. XIV.] ASPECTS OF PAIN. 449 



When the connection between the act and the sensation 

 is not so immediate, but has to be traced through the action 

 of a voluntary punisher, as when an act of a boy or a dog is 

 followed by an unpleasant skin-sensation inflicted by the master, 

 the efficacy of the punishment still depends in a great degree 

 on its promptness and certainty, for these are the conditions 

 under which a permanent association can be effected between 

 the act and the sensation. 



Let us now consider the feelings with which punish- 

 ment may be regarded by the recipient. 



There may be beings in whom the feeling is simple 

 pure repugnance. There is a beast called the Tasmanian 

 Devil, which is said to fight against any odds, however over- 

 powering, as long as any of him can stick together. There 

 is no hope of taming or subduing such a beast by force, and 

 it is probable that he will soon become extinct. 



But in the case of less indomitable beings, punishment 

 may soon assume a less hateful aspect. 



For even if it is not efficacious in changing the habits, 

 as soon as it is recognised as a certain consequence of trans- 

 gression, the execution of the punishment may be welcomed 

 as a relief from the expectation of it, and the culprit may 

 have a satisfaction in getting it over, as an honest man has 

 when he pays his debts. 



If, however, he is really cured of the habit, he may 

 look on the punishment as an operation by which he has 

 not only paid in full for his past transgression, but has been 

 free from the danger of falling into future transgressions. 



Lastly, if his moral perceptions have been so far im- 

 proved that he recognises that the action for which he was 

 punished was really bad, he will sympathise more with the 

 punisher than with his former self, and will admit not only 

 the justice of his punishment as being according to law, but 

 the justice of the law according to which he was punished. 



We come next to those cases in which there is no 

 external punisher, but in which grief or sorrow is awakened 

 within ourselves on account of what we have done. 



2 G 



