Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/395

 CAN THERE BE A SUM OF PLEASURES ? 381 compare a higher and a lower pleasure simply as pleasures. And such comparisons, though difficult, can be made. I may say to myself in a certain mood : "I should get more pleasure from going to this farce than 1 should from going to that tragedy"; and yet I may say to myself: "The tragedy is the nobler and higher pleasure ; therefore to the tragedy I will go". On the other hand, if I were thinking only of amuse- ment, and felt that under the circumstances it was right that I should think of pure amusement rather than of culture and aesthetic gratification, I might say : " Though it is the lower pleasure, I will choose it ". I do not think it can be denied that we do not unfrequently go through such a process sometimes for ourselves, more often in choosing pleasures for others. We should prefer to take a child to this elevat- ing and aesthetic performance rather than to that rather vulgar pantomime, provided he will get a fair amount, though it may be a less amount, of pure amusement out of the former. But will he ? We want to satisfy ourselves of this before we decide against the pantomime. Life is full of such problems, and however much we may insist on the difficulties of such comparisons, they have to be made and are made. It is thus possible, though it is difficult, to compare hetero- geneous pleasures simply in point of pleasantness. It is unnecessary to insist further on the difficulty or to analyse its causes more elaborately. But one very important practical consideration may be pointed out. It is difficult and fre- quently undesirable to compare very heterogeneous alternative pleasures simply from the point of view of their quantitative intensity, because to do so is to put oneself into a state of mind unfavourable to a due appreciation of the higher kind of pleasure even as a pleasure. I may enjoy (say) a sermon by a great preacher and a light but amusing novel. The pleasure is a very different pleasure ; but as both are pleasures, it must, I should contend, be possible to say which is the greater pleasure when there is any very considerable difference in the pleasantness. I am certainly conscious that I have derived more pleasure from some sermons than from some novelists. But if I propose to make the question whether I will go to church and hear the preacher or stay at home and read such and such a novel turn wholly on the question which will be most pleasant, if I deliberately put out of sight all the considerations other than love of pleasure which may draw me to the preacher's feet, I should be putting myself into a state of mind in which I should be very likely greatly to underestimate the amount of pleasure which I really should get, were I to throw aside the book and go to