COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



an interpretation much deeper than the one 

 which he proposed for them. They will appar- 

 ently justify us in asserting that pleasure is a 

 state of consciousness accompanying modes of 

 activity which tend to increase the fulness of 

 life of an organism, while pain is a state of con- 

 sciousness accompanying modes of activity which 

 tend to diminish the fulness of life. Before con- 

 sidering the objections to this doctrine, which, 

 though at first sight formidable, will disappear 

 on further analysis, let us note, with Mr. Spen- 

 cer that, on the theory of evolution, "races of 

 sentient creatures could have come into exist- 

 ence under no other conditions.** Omitting the 

 cases which, in human psychology, are compli- 

 cated by the foresight of remote or inconspicu- 

 ous consequences, Mr. Spencer observes that 

 Pleasure is " a feeling which we seek to bring 

 into consciousness and retain there," while Pain 

 is " a feeling which we seek to get out of con- 

 sciousness and to keep out." Hence it follows 

 that " if the states of consciousness which a 

 creature endeavours to maintain are the corre- 

 latives of injurious actions, and if the states of 

 consciousness which it endeavours to expel are 

 the correlatives of beneficial actions, it must 

 quickly disappear through persistence in the 

 injurious and avoidance of the beneficial." In 

 other words, even supposing a race of animals 

 could come into existence, which should habit- 

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