EQ UALITY OF DESIRE 3 5 7 



character. It is that the entire supposition on which Book iv 

 the objection rests is untrue. The external prizes of 

 life, of which exceptional wealth is the type, though The final 

 struggled for by many with every faculty they 

 possess, though valued by those who achieve them, weait 



and though recognised by men in general as some- natural tend - 



< * ency to cause 



thing of which everybody would choose to be the 



possessor if he could be, do nevertheless amongst 

 average human beings not cause any unhappiness 

 by their absence at all corresponding to the satis- 

 faction which they cause notoriously by their presence. 

 Such an assertion will to many people probably 

 seem self-contradictory. But if it does so, this will 

 simply be owing to the fact that the whole science 

 of the subjective conditions of happiness has been 

 utterly neglected by sociological writers hitherto. 

 The assertion here made, however paradoxical it 

 may sound, embodies one of the most important 

 truths which can claim the sociologist's attention ; 

 and though it cannot be called self-evident, every 

 student of social science should be familiar with it. 

 It forms, indeed, the pons asinorum of all social 

 psychology. A brief elucidation of it will be enough 

 for our present purpose. 



There is a certain minimum of external goods, the for men's 

 desire for which has a physiological basis, and causes, There is 



when unsatisfied, misery, disease, or death. Chief defor' the 

 amongst such goods are food and, in most climates, S 



clothes and shelter. So far as this minimum is con- this desire 



rests on men s 



cerned, the desires of all are practically equal ; and physical 



, , . , . /- i i i natures . which 



they are equal because they arise out of that physical are similar ; 



