CD. XXII.] GENESIS OF MAN, MORALLY. 329 



the parts affected. And the feelings of pain or discomfort 

 both local and systemic, attendant upon over-exercise, over- 

 eating, or excessive use of a narcotic, are to be similarly 

 explained. 



Thus we may say that pleasure, generally speaking, is " the 

 concomitant of an activity which is neither too small nor 

 too great," and we get at the significance of the Epicurean 

 maxim, ixrjhev dyav. But this doctrine, as already hinted, 

 is by no means complete. For, as Mr. Mill and Mr. Spencer 

 ask, " What constitutes a medium activity ? What deter- 

 mines that lower limit of pleasurable action belowwhich 

 there is craving, and that higher limit of pleasurable action 

 above which there is pain ?" And furthermore, how happen 

 there to be certain feelings (as among tastes and odours) 

 which are disagreeable in all degrees of intensity, and' others 

 that are agreeable in all degrees of intensity ? The answer, 

 as Mr. Spencer shows, is to be sought in the study of the 

 past conditions under which feelings have been evolved. 



If the tentacles of a polyp are rudely struck by some 

 passing or approaching body, the whole polyp contracts 

 violently in such a manner as to throw itself slightly out of 

 the way ; but if a fragment of assimilable food, floating by, 

 happens to touch one of the tentacles gently, the tentacle 

 grasps it and draws it slowly down to the polyp's digestive 

 sac. Now between these contrasted actions there is no 

 such psychical difference as accompanies the similarly con- 

 trasted human actions of taking food and ducking the head 

 to avoid a blow; for the polyp's contractions, being simply 

 reflex actions of the lowest sort, are unattended by states of 

 consciousness, either agreeable or disagreeable. Nevertheless 

 there is one respect in which the two cases perfectly agree. 

 In both cases there is a seeking of that which is beneficial 

 to the organism, and a shunning of that which is injurious. 

 And while, in the case of the polyp, there is no conscious 

 pleasure or pain, we may fairly surmise that, as soon as any 



