PLEASURE AND PAIN 167 



tive impulses. Happiness is obtained by satis- 

 fying an impulse : unhappiness results from 

 inability to satisfy it. One who is devoid of 

 strong impulses cannot be happy : one whose 

 impulses are strong and are unsatisfied must be 

 miserable. Impulses may, within certain limits, 

 be modified in strength by habit, and we are 

 able in some measure to fashion our desires to our 

 opportunities. The happy man is he who makes 

 this correspondence complete. Pleasure and 

 happiness commonly lead to the virtuous and the 

 useful. But they may also be obtained by the 

 enjoyment of tastes and the satisfaction of desires 

 which are pernicious for the individual and for 

 society. 



1112 rtiffiffiSi! 



The impulses which have been classed as in- 

 stinctive, in the ordinary use of this term, are 

 extraordinarily contradictory. They fall into 

 groups of opposites. It may appear incredible 

 that Life should display itself by the ordering of 

 antagonisms. But each one of us may satisfy 

 himself by introspection that his character is in 

 fact a mass of contradictions, and that he often 

 acts in a way which he afterwards regrets. A 

 duality runs through us which appears to be 

 altogether inconsistent with such a simple ex- 

 planation of Life as is given by materialistic 

 hypotheses : we seem to be the resultants of two 

 rival forces, which may perhaps be contrasted as 

 Life and Matter. We are insatiably curious to 

 penetrate the veil behind which are concealed 

 the mysterious influences that have filled the 

 earth with its varied hosts of plants and animals, 

 that have brought some to honour, others to 

 dishonour, and that elevate and deprave the mind 

 of man. We are in no way assisted by the know- 



