Page:The Science of Religion (1925).djvu/49

Rh men the charm of pleasure. Hence we see that consciousness of want precedes—and consciousness of the want being fulfilled enters into—pleasurable consciousness. Thus it is want and the fulfillment of want with which the pleasure consciousness is concerned. It is mind that creates want and fulfills it.

It is a great mistake to regard a certain object as pleasurable in itself and to store the idea of it in the mind in the hope of fulfilling a want by its actual presence in the future. If objects were pleasurable in themselves, then the same dress or food would always please every one, which is not the case. What is called pleasure is a creation of the mind—it is a deluding, ‘‘excitation’’ consciousness, depending upon the satisfaction of the preceding state of desire and upon present contrast consciousness. The more a thing is thought to excite pleasurable consciousness and the more the want of it is harbored in the mind, the more the pos-