62 LAW OF SELF-ACTIVITY. 



1. Ennui, the pressure of existence, unvisited by 

 effort. " The very fiends weave ropes of sand rather 

 than taste pure hell in idleness." Spiritual pauper- 

 ism a phase of decline. Lady Clare Vere de Vere. 

 Galton on the English peerage. Sickness or injury 

 not necessarily the causes of ennui. Darwin ; Tom 

 Dunstan. 



2. Dissipation. Passions which burn and burn out. 

 Deceptions of the senses. The " pleasures like poppies 

 spread," are not pleasures, but tricks on the nervous 

 system. These destroy it ; their results phases of 

 degradation. " The world looks different to the man, 

 and he looks different to the world." These sub- 

 jective imaginary pleasures followed by horrors which 

 are equally subjective. Alcoholism ; opium ; narcot- 

 ism ; sensuality ; trances. Pessimism largely result 

 of affected sensorium. Religious excitement. Nature 

 favors the creature which looks with clear eyes on its 

 surroundings. " Who ever with a frolic welcome takes 

 the thunder and the sunshine." 



3. Slavery. Dragging down of effort without the 

 element of consent. No virtue in hard work, but work 

 to a purpose. Work without a pride in it tends to 

 degradation. Tendency to drown evil feelings arising 

 from degradation in self-deceiving stimuli, which tend 

 in the same direction. Even a slave need not work 

 slavishly. 



4. Old age. 



5. Evil associations. 



6. Arrested development. 



Natural selection destroys those who find no pleas- 

 ure in action ; for such do not act. Natural selection 

 eliminates the victims of ennui, dissipation, or slavery. 



