WILL. 557 



with mere pleasure of achievement which makes the pleasure- 

 theory of action so plausible to the ordinary mind. We 

 feel an impulse, no matter whence derived; we jiroceed 

 to act ; if hindered, we feel displeasure ; and if successful, 

 relief. Action in the line of the present impulse is always for 

 the time being the pleasant course ; and the ordinary' he- 

 donist expresses this fact by saying that Ave act for the 

 sake of the pleasantness involved. But who does not see 

 that for this sort of pleasure to be possible, the impulse 

 must he there already as an independent fact ? The pleasure 

 of successful performance is the result of the impulse, not 

 its cause. You cannot have your pleasure of achievement 

 unless you have managed to get your impulse under head- 

 way beforehand by some previous means. 



It is true that on special occasions (so complex is the 

 human mind) the pleasure of achievement may itself become a 

 pursued pleasure; and these cases form another j)oint on which 

 the pleasure-theory is apt to rally. Take a foot-ball game 

 or a fox-hunt. Who in cold blood wants the fox for its 

 own sake, or cares whether the ball be at this goal or that ? 

 We know, however, by experience, that if Ave can once rouse 

 a certain impulsive excitement in ourseh'es, Avhether to over- 

 take the fox, or to get the ball to one jsarticular goal, the 

 successful venting of it over the counteracting checks Avill 

 fill us with exceeding joy. We therefore get ourselves de- 

 liberately and artificially into the hot impulsive state. It 

 takes the presence of various instinct-arousing conditions to 

 excite it ; but little by little, once we are in the field, it 

 reaches its paroxysm ; and we reap the reward of our ex- 

 ertions in that pleasure of successful achievement which, 

 far more than the dead fox or the goal-got ball, Avas the ob- 

 ject we originally pursued. So it often is with duties. 

 Lots of actions are done with heaviness all through, and 

 not till they are completed does pleasure emerge, in the joy 

 of being done with them. Like Hamlet Ave say of each such 

 successive task, 



' ' O cursed spite, 

 That ever I was born to set it right 1 " 



and then we often add to the original impulse that set us 

 on, this additional one, that " we shall feel so glad when 



