PHILOSOPHY, MENTAL. 



words expressing praise and censure, and 

 with all their other circumstances, trans- 

 fer upon praise or censure compound vi- 

 vid relicts of those pleasures and pains. 



77. In like manner, all the kinds of 

 honour and shame, by being- expressed 

 in words and symbols which are nearly 

 related to each other, enhance each 

 other; thus, for instance, the caresses 

 which are given to a child when he is 

 dressed in fine clothes, prepare him to 

 be much more affected with the caresses 

 and encomiums bestowed upon him when 

 he has been diligent in getting his lesson : 

 and, indeed, it ought to be remarked, 

 that the words and phrases of the parents, 

 governors, superiors, and attendants, 

 have so great an influence over children, 

 when they first come to the use of lan- 

 gi^age, as instantly to generate an im- 

 plicit belief, a strong desire, or a high 

 degree of pleasure. Unless very im- 

 proper treatment has been practised, 

 they have at that early period no sus- 

 picions, jealousies, recollections, or ex- 

 pectations, of being deceived or dis- 

 appointed; and therefore a set of words, 

 expressing pleasure of any kind which 

 they have experienced, put together in 

 almost any manner, will raise up in them 

 a pleasurable state, and the opposite 

 words a painful one. Whence it is easy 

 to see, that the language expressing 

 praise or blame, must instantly form the 

 mere associations connected with the 

 separate words, put them into a state of 

 hope and joy, or of fear and sorrow. And 

 when the foundation is thus laid, praise 

 and blame will keep their influences 

 from the advantages and disadvantages 

 attending them, though the separate 

 words should lose their particular influ- 

 ences, as they manifestly do in our pro- 

 gress through life. 



78. The honour and shame arising from 

 intellectual accomplishments, do often, 

 in learned men, after some time, destroy, 

 in a great measure, their sensibility in 

 respect of every other kind of honour 

 and shame; which seems chiefly to arise 

 from their conversing much with books 

 and learned men, so as to have a great 

 part of the pleasures which they receive 

 from such intercourse closely connected 

 with the encomiums on abilities and 

 learning, and to hear all terms of ho- 

 nour applied to them, and the keenest re- 

 proach, and the most insolent contempt, 

 cast upon the contrary defects. And, as 

 the pleasures which raillery, ridicule, 

 and satire, afford to the by-standers, are 

 very considerable, so the person who is 



the object of them, and who begins to 

 be in pain upon the first slight marks of 

 contempt, has this pain much enhanced 

 by the contrast, the exquisiteness of his 

 uneasiness and con fusion rising in pro- 

 portion to the degree of inifth and in- 

 solent laughter in the by-standers ; so 

 that it happens that very few persons 

 have courage to stand the force of ri- 

 dicule, but rather subject themselves to 

 considerable bodily pains, to losses, and 

 to the anxiety of a guilty mind, than ap- 

 pear foolish, absurd, singular, or con- 

 temptible to the world, or even to per- 

 sons of whose judgment and abilities 

 they have a low opinion. 



Of the Pleasures and Pains of Self-Interest. 



79. Self-interest may be distinguished 

 into three kinds: gross self-interest, or 

 the pursuit of the means whereby the 

 pleasures of sensation, imagination, and 

 ambition, are to be obtained, and their 

 pains avoided; refined self-interest, or 

 the explicit, deliberate, seeking for our- 

 selves of the pleasures of sympathy, 

 theopathy, and the moral sense, and a 

 like explicit endeavour to avoid their 

 pains; and, rational self-interest, or the 

 explicit pursuit of our greatest happi- 

 ness, without any partiality to any parti- 

 cular kind of happiness, or direct or in- 

 direct means of happiness. 



80. The love of money may be con- 

 sidered as the chief species of gross self- 

 interest ; and, in an eminent manner, 

 assists in unfolding the mutual influences 

 of our pleasures and pains, with the 

 factitious nature of our intellectual ones, 

 and the doctrine of association in general, 

 as well as the particular progress, win- 

 dings, and endless redoublings of self- 

 love. For it is evident, at first sight, that 

 money cannot naturally and originally be 

 the object of our faculties : no chikl can 

 be supposed to be born with a love of it; 

 yet we see, that some small degrees of 

 this love rise early in infancy; that it 

 generally increases during youth and 

 manhood; and that at last, in some old 

 persons, it so engrosses and absorbs all 

 their passions and pursuits, as that, from 

 being considered as the representative 

 standard, and means of obtaining the 

 commodities which occur in real life, it 

 shall be esteemed the adequate symbol 

 and means of happiness in general, and 

 the thing itself, the sum total of all which 

 is desirable in life. But we have already 

 said so much on the origin and progress 

 of this affection ( 43), that we shall 



