or worth. In the great diversity of tastes regarding
pleasures, he supposes the ultimate decision as to
the value of pleasures to rest with the possessors
of finer perceptive powers, but adds, that good men
are the best judges, because possessed of fuller experience
than the vicious, whose tastes, senses, and appetites
have lost their natural vigour through one-sided indulgence.
He then goes through the various pleasures, depreciating
the pleasures of the palate on the positive side,
and sexual pleasure as transitory and enslaving when
pursued for itself; the sensual enjoyments are, notwithstanding,
quite proper within due limits, and then, perhaps,
are at their highest. The pleasures of the imagination,
knowledge, &c., differ from the last in not being
preceded by an uneasy sensation to be removed, and
are clearly more dignified and endurable, being the
proper exercise of the soul when it is not moved by
the affections of social virtue, or the offices of
rational piety. The sympathetic pleasures
are very extensive, very intense, and may be of very
long duration; they are superior to all the foregoing,
if there is a hearty affection, and are at their height
along with the feeling of universal good will. Moral
Enjoyments, from the consciousness of good affections
and actions, when by close reflexion we have attained
just notions of virtue and merit, rank highest of
all, as well in dignity as in duration. The pleasures
of honour, when our conduct is approved, are
also among the highest, and when, as commonly happens,
they are conjoined with the last two classes, it is
the height of human bliss. The pleasures of mirth,
such as they are, fall in best with virtue, and so,
too, the pleasures of wealth and power,
in themselves unsatisfying. Anger, malice, revenge,
&c., are not without their uses, and give momentary
pleasure as removing an uneasiness from the subject
of them; but they are not to be compared with the sympathetic
feelings, because their effects cannot long be regarded
with satisfaction. His general conclusion is,
that as the highest personal satisfaction is had in
the most benevolent dispositions, the same course of
conduct is recommended alike by the two great determinations
of our nature, towards our own good and the good of
others. He then compares the several sorts of
pain, which, he says, are not necessarily in the proportion
of the corresponding pleasures. Allowing the great
misery of bodily pain, he yet argues that, at the
worst, it is not to be compared for a moment to the
pain of the worst wrong-doing. The imagination,
great as are its pleasures, cannot cause much pain.
The sympathetic and moral pains of remorse and infamy
are the worst of all.