MUSCLE AND MIND. 385 



from plants, pleasure and pain gradually arose out of movements, 

 thus leading to the development of volition. 



Lucretius says : * "It is delightful to stand on the sea-shore in 

 a high wind and watch the dangers of those who are on the deep ; 

 it is equally pleasant to behold from an elevated station a battle 

 raging in the plains below, because it is naturally agreeable to wit- 

 ness those misfortunes from which yourself are free ; but far more 

 pleasant still is it to occupy wisdom's heights, and from thence to 

 look down on others groping and wandering in search of the true 

 light." f Although the want of sympathetic feeling shown in this 

 poetic flight is shocking to the altruism of the nineteenth century, 

 the idea is nevertheless in entire harmony with Hamilton's defini- 

 tion of pleasure, since consciousness of power naturally belongs 

 to a position of superiority; and the feeling here disclosed un- 

 doubtedly constitutes an important element in human satisfac- 

 tions. It is not always necessary that superiority should be 

 demonstrated in order to the securing of its legitimate effects ; 

 a powerful mastiff scorns to use his strength against an inferior 

 antagonist ; the mere consciousness of ability to exterminate the 

 puppy with a single shake satisfies the demands of his nature. 



Pleasure, originating in physical activity and reaching a far 

 higher phase in the doing of intellectual work, culminates in the 

 supreme consciousness of power which attends the moral actions. 

 As pointed out by Mr. Stanton Coit,| " The conscious fulfillment 

 of duty is attended by a feeling of happiness which sometimes 

 takes the form of deep inward peace, and sometimes of gladness 

 and exultation, like that of a victor." Thus the ancient heathen 

 poet and the modern moralist, although separated by the vast 

 ocean of sympathy which lies between the opposite poles of ego- 

 ism and altruism, meet nevertheless on the common soil of a com- 

 mon human nature. 



Activity, then, carries with it its own reward ; it is in itself an 

 end ; and education, once almost exclusively directed to the imme- 

 diate cultivation of the mind, is gradually extending to all the 

 activities of the complex human being — the physical and moral 

 as well as the intellectual. The general methods by which the 

 full measure of development of which human nature is suscep- 

 tible may be secured are, I believe, indicated in the psycho-physi- 

 ological facts and principles of which I have here attempted a 

 brief outline. 



* Quoted by B. Cattell in " Are Animals mentally happy ? " " Nineteenth Century," 

 August, 1886. 



f It was one of the teachings of a certain system of theology, now happily nearly obso- 

 lete, that the spectacle of the tortures of the damned would constitute one of the elements 

 of heavenly bliss. 



\ See " Mind," No. xliii, " The Final Aim of Moral Action." 

 vol. xxxv. — 25 



