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"They think it is an evidence of true wisdom for a man to pursue his own |
advantage as far as the laws allow it, they account it piety to prefer |
the public good to one's private concerns, but they think it unjust for a |
man to seek for pleasure by snatching another man's pleasures from him; |
and, on the contrary, they think it a sign of a gentle and good soul for |
a man to dispense with his own advantage for the good of others, and that |
by this means a good man finds as much pleasure one way as he parts with |
another; for as he may expect the like from others when he may come to |
need it, so, if that should fail him, yet the sense of a good action, and |
the reflections that he makes on the love and gratitude of those whom he |
has so obliged, gives the mind more pleasure than the body could have |
found in that from which it had restrained itself. They are also |
persuaded that God will make up the loss of those small pleasures with a |
vast and endless joy, of which religion easily convinces a good soul. |
"Thus, upon an inquiry into the whole matter, they reckon that all our |
actions, and even all our virtues, terminate in pleasure, as in our chief |
end and greatest happiness; and they call every motion or state, either |
of body or mind, in which Nature teaches us to delight, a pleasure. Thus |
they cautiously limit pleasure only to those appetites to which Nature |
leads us; for they say that Nature leads us only to those delights to |
which reason, as well as sense, carries us, and by which we neither |
injure any other person nor lose the possession of greater pleasures, and |
of such as draw no troubles after them. But they look upon those |
delights which men by a foolish, though common, mistake call pleasure, as |
if they could change as easily the nature of things as the use of words, |
as things that greatly obstruct their real happiness, instead of |
advancing it, because they so entirely possess the minds of those that |
are once captivated by them with a false notion of pleasure that there is |
no room left for pleasures of a truer or purer kind. |
"There are many things that in themselves have nothing that is truly |
delightful; on the contrary, they have a good deal of bitterness in them; |
and yet, from our perverse appetites after forbidden objects, are not |
only ranked among the pleasures, but are made even the greatest designs, |
of life. Among those who pursue these sophisticated pleasures they |
reckon such as I mentioned before, who think themselves really the better |
for having fine clothes; in which they think they are doubly mistaken, |
both in the opinion they have of their clothes, and in that they have of |
themselves. For if you consider the use of clothes, why should a fine |
thread be thought better than a coarse one? And yet these men, as if |
they had some real advantages beyond others, and did not owe them wholly |
to their mistakes, look big, seem to fancy themselves to be more |
valuable, and imagine that a respect is due to them for the sake of a |
rich garment, to which they would not have pretended if they had been |
more meanly clothed, and even resent it as an affront if that respect is |
not paid them. It is also a great folly to be taken with outward marks |
of respect, which signify nothing; for what true or real pleasure can one |
man find in another's standing bare or making legs to him? Will the |
bending another man's knees give ease to yours? and will the head's being |
bare cure the madness of yours? And yet it is wonderful to see how this |
false notion of pleasure bewitches many who delight themselves with the |
fancy of their nobility, and are pleased with this conceit--that they are |
descended from ancestors who have been held for some successions rich, |
and who have had great possessions; for this is all that makes nobility |
at present. Yet they do not think themselves a whit the less noble, |
though their immediate parents have left none of this wealth to them, or |
though they themselves have squandered it away. The Utopians have no |
better opinion of those who are much taken with gems and precious stones, |
and who account it a degree of happiness next to a divine one if they can |
purchase one that is very extraordinary, especially if it be of that sort |
of stones that is then in greatest request, for the same sort is not at |
all times universally of the same value, nor will men buy it unless it be |
dismounted and taken out of the gold. The jeweller is then made to give |
good security, and required solemnly to swear that the stone is true, |
that, by such an exact caution, a false one might not be bought instead |
of a true; though, if you were to examine it, your eye could find no |
difference between the counterfeit and that which is true; so that they |
are all one to you, as much as if you were blind. Or can it be thought |
that they who heap up a useless mass of wealth, not for any use that it |
is to bring them, but merely to please themselves with the contemplation |
of it, enjoy any true pleasure in it? The delight they find is only a |
false shadow of joy. Those are no better whose error is somewhat |
different from the former, and who hide it out of their fear of losing |
it; for what other name can fit the hiding it in the earth, or, rather, |
the restoring it to it again, it being thus cut off from being useful |
either to its owner or to the rest of mankind? And yet the owner, having |
hid it carefully, is glad, because he thinks he is now sure of it. If it |
should be stole, the owner, though he might live perhaps ten years after |
the theft, of which he knew nothing, would find no difference between his |
having or losing it, for both ways it was equally useless to him. |
"Among those foolish pursuers of pleasure they reckon all that delight in |
hunting, in fowling, or gaming, of whose madness they have only heard, |
for they have no such things among them. But they have asked us, 'What |
sort of pleasure is it that men can find in throwing the dice?' (for if |
there were any pleasure in it, they think the doing it so often should |
give one a surfeit of it); 'and what pleasure can one find in hearing the |
barking and howling of dogs, which seem rather odious than pleasant |
sounds?' Nor can they comprehend the pleasure of seeing dogs run after a |
hare, more than of seeing one dog run after another; for if the seeing |
them run is that which gives the pleasure, you have the same |
entertainment to the eye on both these occasions, since that is the same |
in both cases. But if the pleasure lies in seeing the hare killed and |
torn by the dogs, this ought rather to stir pity, that a weak, harmless, |
and fearful hare should be devoured by strong, fierce, and cruel dogs. |
Therefore all this business of hunting is, among the Utopians, turned |
over to their butchers, and those, as has been already said, are all |
slaves, and they look on hunting as one of the basest parts of a |
butcher's work, for they account it both more profitable and more decent |
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