Page:Essays on the Principles of Human Action (1835).djvu/150

 concern is for myself, or that I am governed solely by a principle of self-interest.—The body has a mechanical tendency to shrink from physical pain: this may be called mechanical self-love, because, though the good of the individual is not the object of the action, it is the immediate and natural effect of it. The movement which is dictated by nature is directly followed by the cessation of the pain by which the individual was annoyed. The evil is completely removed with respect to the individual the moment the object is at a distance from him ; but it only exists as it affects the individual, it is therefore completely at an end when it ceases to affect him. The only thing necessary therefore is to produce this change in the relation of the body to the object; now this is the exact tendency of the impulse produced by bodily pain, that is, it shrinks at the pain and from the object. The being does not suffer a moment longer than he can help it: for there is nothing that should induce him to remain in pain. The body is not tied down to do penance under the discipline of external objects, till by fulfilling certain conditions, from which it reaps no benefit, it obtains a release; all its exertions tend immediately to its own relief. The body (at least according to the account here spoken of) is a machine so contrived, that, as far as depends on itself, it always tends to its own good, in the mind; on the contrary, there are numberless lets and impediments that interfere with this object inseparable from its very nature; the body strives to produce such alterations in its relation to other things as conduce to its own advantage, the mind seeks to alter the relations of other things to one another; the body loves its own good, for it tends to it, the understanding is not governed solely by this principle, for it is constantly aiming at other objects. To make the two cases of physical un-