COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



favourite pursuits. All these painful states are 

 due to the enforced Inaction of certain feelings, 

 social or aesthetic. And in similar wise, as Mr. 

 Spencer observes, the bitter grief attendant upon 

 the death of a friend results from the ideal repre- 

 sentation of a future in which certain groups of 

 habitual emotions must remain inactive or un- 

 satisfied by outward expression. 



The objection may be made that all this is but 

 an elaborate way of saying that certain pains 

 result from the deprivation of certain pleasures. 

 But since such an objection, In its very statement, 

 recognizes that certain kinds of unimpeded ac- 

 tivity, physical or psychical, are pleasures, it need 

 not disturb us, or lead us to underestimate the 

 value of Hamilton's suggestion. Let us note 

 next that excessive action of any function, equally 

 with deficient action, is attended by pain. Local 

 pain results from intensified sensations of heat, 

 light, sound, or pressure ; and though it may be 

 in some cases true, as Mr. Spencer asserts, that 

 sweet tastes are not rendered positively disagree- 

 able by any degree of intensity,^ the alleged fact 

 seems quite contrary to my own experience, and 

 to that of several other persons whom I have 

 questioned. Other local pains, as In inflamma- 

 tion and sundry other forms of disease, are ap- 

 parently due to Increased molecular activity in 



^ Spencer, Principles of Psychology, vol. i. p. 276. 

 [§ 1^3-] 



no 



