Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-02-25
Different Ideas of Pleasure.

The world is yet very far from the time
when words shall be given exact and limited
meanings, and when in consequence the
basis of many controversies shall be swept
away. A translation of Epictetus repre-
sents him as saying that sit is the part of
q wise man to resist pleasures, but Of
foolish one to be a slave to them" The
word pleasures is here plainly used in
very restricted sense. Nor is this misuse
of the word matter Of small Importance,
for built upon such misuse are codes of
morality that would make this world vale
of tears. It is no less pleasure for good
man to do kind and charitable act than it
is for the sensuous to crafty their vicious
tendencies, yet the two kinds of pleasures
cannot p operly be grouped in an epigram
condemning both. Authors, however, have
go persistently limited the word to tho de-
scription of that which is wrong or hurtful,
or at least frivolous, that in writing on the
subject one is obliged to particularly de-
scribe the kind of pleasures he is condemn
ing or approving. Hannah More writes !:
'The roses of pleasure seldom last long
enough TO s6orn the brow of him who
plucks them; for they are the only roses
they have lost their beauty" But she is
is describing are tie flowers of vice. There
are other roses of pleasure that retain their
beauty aod fragrance through all time
Such are the pleasures of the pure mind
and the generous heart. Why should vice
be permitted to monopolize the idea Of that
which all men instinotively seek? 1t is
true that the pGrsuit of pleasure for its own
sake is very likely to make men selfish and
lead them astray, but it is just as true that
an unselfsh life directed to promoting the
good of humanity leads them to the highest
happiness-to pleasures more real than the
unsubstantial enjoyments which vice or
frivolity yield. What our conception Of
pleasure may be will depend, OF course,
largely upon our tastes. Ruskin describes
perfect taste as ''the faculty of receiving
the greatest possible pleasure from those
material sources which are attractive to
cur moral nature in its purity and perfec-
tion," but this would rule out as pleasures
all those things which moralists are ac-
customed to describe by that word
Words, however, are nothing in compari-
SOD with IDEAS which they may be used to
illuminate or hide. In that view pleasures,
with the broad meaning, are not to be
avoided, as the moralists would have It,,
but those pleasures which are founded
upon purity, morality, Inc love OF men, are
to be sought and followed. There are, in
short, pleasures and pleasures. Those
which are selfshly pursued for their own
sake are very likely to turn out to be
withered rosea; those which come unsought
as the result of coed works are constant,
Interchangeable. Ia this view Of the word or
its conception, the self-sacriflcing mission
ary, the tender purse, the earnest explorer,
the faithful physician, the earnest reformer
all who work for the good Of humanity,
pursue life of pleasure, but it is Q very
different life from that which is usually
described in these words. Goldsmith was
SO impressed with the limited meaning OF
the word that he put it in a paradox: "A
life OF pleasure ia the most un-
pleasing life in the world" which saying,
if true, is sufficient evidence that the word
has been misapplied. There would be little
harm in this if men were not in the habit
of building up codes Of morality on words
or phrases. This tendency of the human
mind makes it a misfortune when vice is
called out of its name, az, for example,
when vice is described as pleasure. With
some writers this conception is SO clear and
strong that vice might be substituted for
pleasure throughout their writings without
altering the sense, and the effect of the
lessons they teach is to warn their readers