Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/135

Rh painful one. So, for instance, if the Christian accustoms himself at every sexual enjoyment to think of the presence and the sneers of the devil; or of everlasting agonies in hell-fire as punishment for revenge by murder; or only of the contempt which rewards a money-theft in the eyes of the people he most respects; or if somebody has hundreds of times checked an intense longing for suicide by a counter-notion of the grief and self-reproaches of relations and friends, and thereby has balanced himself on the edge of life; now these ideas suceed each other in his mind, just as cause and effect do. Among cases of this kind we may class those of Lord Byron aud Napoleon, in whom human pride revolted and keenly felt as an offence the ascen-dancy of a single passion over the whole attitude and order of reason-whence arises the habit of all the delight in tyrannising over the craving, making it, so to speak, gnash its teeth. "I do not want to be the slave of any appetite," Byron wrote in his diary. Fifthly, we allow a dislocation of our abilities by imposing on ourselves some specially difficult and fatiguing task, or by intentionally submitting to some new charm and pleasure, and thus guiding our thoughts and physical powers into other channels. It comes to the sand if we temporarily favour another craving, giving it ample opportunity for gratification, and thus making it the lavisher of that power, which otherwise would be swayed over by the craving which has grown