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Untitled Article
gaiety was characteristic of his conversation , in which he seldom alluded , except in a playful manner , to the great subjects of his labours . A child-like simplicity of manner , combined with a continual playfulness of wit , made you forget that you were in the presence of
the most acute and penetrating genius ; made you conscious only that you were in the presence of the most innocent and gentle , the most consciously and singularly happy of human beings . And from this the true source of politeness , a benevolent and happy mind , endea vouring to communicate the pleasure of which it is itself conscious , flowed those unobtrusive , but not the less real and observant .
attentions of which every guest perceived the grace and felt the charm * For the pleasures of tfje social board he had a relish as sincere , and perhaps as acute , as those who are capable of enjoying no others ; and he partook of them freely , as far as they are capable of affording of diseases . It is this thing , and that thing , and the other thing—it is anything but pleasure—it is the Irishman ' s apple-pie , made of nothing but quinces . * " If it were anything , what would it be P Could it be anything but pleasure ; a pleasure , or the cause of pleasure ; supreme pleasure—pleasure without
painhappiness maximised ? What fool has there ever been eo foolish as not to know , that by no man—in no time—at no place—has such a pleasure been found ? * " In every walk of discipline , error is a sort of vestibule , through which men are condemned to pass in their approaches towards truth . ' " While Xenophon was writing history , and Eudid teaching geometry , Socrates and Plato were talking nonsense , under pretence of talking wisdom and morality . This morality of theirs consisted in words—this wisdom of theirs was the denial of matters known to every man's experience . 6
* ' The people were contented to reap common pleasures under the guidance of common sense . They were called ignorant and the yulg-ar herd , yet they crowded into their existence a balance of well-being , and most of them every now aud then a portion of happiness ; well-being their ordinary fare—happiness , a slight taste of it , for an occasional feast . This was good enough for the ignorant vulgar ; not so for the learned sages—men who , by whatever name they called their own sageships , were called by others wisest of men (< ro < pio < r < x . i } J wise men (< ro < pot ) , or Jovers of wisdom (< piXo < ro < pot )—holding their heads aloft , and pouring forth their streams of sophistry .
c To the profane vulgar they left the enjoyment of any such pleasures as might fall in their way ; for their own disciples they reserved a thing , a beautiful thing , which they called to tvrja-Tov ayxffovy the summum bonum , the sovereign good . What was it ? Was it pleasure ? Oh np ! pleasure was not good enough for them 5 it wsp something better than pleasure—and it could not be better without being different from it . 4
" Now , had their practice been what their preaching was , it could only have been said that they resembled the dog who , snapping at the shadow , lost the substance . But theirs was no such folly : pleasure was good for one thing , summum bonum for another ; pleasure was to be enjoyed , summum . bonum to be talked of . While they were all of them chattering about summum bonum , each was amusing himself wi ^ h his vruthxag . * * *
~ "It js ps amusing to look at some of the contests among men called sages , as it is instructive to trace their results . While , in later times , a set of physical philosophers were hunting for the universal panacea , the moral philosophers were running after % ^\ r summum bonum ; excellent objects both , and all agreed that \> opk were in existence— -both were nndable—but they die } not agree as to where tfyey are to be found ,
* " The idea of good , said one , there it is- —there the summy . m bonum is to be found . Catch the idea of good , and you have caught the summum bonum . And now , having caught it , are you a bit the happier—are you , with your summum bonum , happier than the happiest of men who has not got it ? But when you have got it , what will you dp with it ? You need not perplex yourself with the question—it is time enough to know when you hava managed to get it . " —• JL > eont 6 / ogy .
Untitled Article
Critical Notices * —* ALecture , fyc . Tl 1
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/61/
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