The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-11-21
Pleasure.
he Editor Of the Republican:

OOJCCb vi Oil SONCIA-
meni-the art namely.of making peo-
pie pleased or happy; and it would
not be less rational to condemn re-
ligion because of the cruelties that
have been inflicted in its name, or
art, because some good pictures haye
an immoral tendency, than to in
weigh against pleasure because some
people pursue it selfishly, or find it in
unworthy objects.
To enjoy rightly is one of the surest
precepts of human happiness, and it
is difficult for layman to put his fin
ger on any denunciation of pleasure,
as such. in Old or New Testament.
There is something of insincerity, in
the conventional attitude assumed
towards pleasure by protesting Chris
tians. We are continually seeking
it, yet we express adherence of pleas
ure-seekers; we profess to despise it,
yet the whole effort of the nation is
to obtain it.
but pleasure in the present? What is
the promise of every religion but
pleasure in the future? With what
consistency can the honest believer
undervalue pleasure when the Psalm
ist declares that ''at the Lords right
hand are pleasures for evermore?n
thnn NlaocY,rn ie
right thing, and therefore worth
taking some trouble to secure, it is
not wasting time to consider its true
nature, and remark upon some of the
common hindrances to its attainment,
and to point out the common neglect
of some of its purest sources.
Pleasure, then, in the full meaning
of enjoyment or delight, is indeed one
of the most difficult subjects that can
be submitted to analysis. Seek and
We shall not find it, unless your search
is wisely directed. Often it eludes
the most elaborate plans and costly
preparations for its capture. Equal
ly often it springs out unawares upon
the way-farer, when he is least look
ing for it; meets him with frank est
countenance when its presence would
be least suspected. Thus the ordina-
ry scheme of social entertainment is
I devised to encourage that most preci-
GUS of all earthly joys-congenial in
tercourse, and the guests come away
wearied, while chance meeting on
a railway, or even in a dentists
waiting room may fill the heart with
gladness. The fact is, elaborate prepa-
rations are more likely to scare than
to secure pleasure. In the expressive
words of Mr.. Dallas: Pleasure seldom
gives note of her coming. She comes
like an angel, unseen, unheard, I'M
known; and not till she is gone, or
parting from us, are our eyes open to
what we have enjoyed"
The nature of the object sought is
not in itself of the essence of pleasure
There is. perhaps, no device of ease
more consumately designed for its
purpose than a modern bed. Yet to
the bed-ridden what is this bed but
Gehenna?
Again, to the student books are all
in all. How can one remain insensi-
BILE to books as a source of pleasure?
Nevertheless, not to mention the
I schoolboy, in whose eyes books are
but elaborate obstacles to the enjoy
ment of life, there are thousands of
educated men and women who prefer
the sensational trash of the day to
the treasures of literature, because
desire, the qualification of which con-
fers pleasure, has not been born in
them.
In fact, there is no such thing as
objective pleasure; pleasure is har-
mony, a fitting together-a fitting of
an external object with mood or
want within ourselves. 1t is to put
it plainly, the fulfillment of desire,
the qualification of an appetite not
necessarily ignoble.
As Goethe said of beauty SO it may
be said of pleasure: 1t is primevaI
phenomenon that eludes definition-a
! radiance shed from the presence of
Him at whose right hand there are
pleasures for evermore. The source
of which though we may speculate
about it, we can never know. This
much, however, it is in our power to
do; seeing that pleasure is a sensa-
ton arising from the fitting of fulfill
ment to desire, and of condition to
mood, we can encourage those desires
and train those moods which conduce
to the purest qualification.
Nopursuit confers as much pleasure
as natural science. The pleasure of
expanding knowledge has a boundless
field for its qualification, and proof of
the enduring quality of pleasure de-
rived from knowledge of physical
science may be had in the fact that
no one is ever known to tire of it, or
to fail in deriving pleasure from every