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If he abstains from taking the pleasure in question
as we suppose him to do, it is I suppose on the four
accounts following, some or all of them.
Either 1st Because he thinks God would may be displeased
with him.
2. Because he thinks the Law might may punish him
3. Because he thinks he may lose the esteem
and good-will of his acquaintance.
4. Because he thinks he may lose to the good-will
of his wife herself.
To each every one of these events, pain is or at least
may naturally + + does probably appear to him to be annexed: and that a pain originating ultimately in the body
If the 1st of these be the consideration that
governed him, it is plain that the pleasure
he finds in fulfilling his duty in this behalf
is not consists not in the bare reflection that he is fulfilling
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his duty, but in the reflection his reflecting on the pains
he avoids by not violating it: viz. — such
pains whether in this world or in the next,
that he might apprehend from the displeasure
of the Deity, at the same time that he
reflects on the pleasures that he secures; by such a conduct+ + will secure him. viz:
such pleasures as he expects from the favour
of the Deity. Another observation and here it might might here be made. be the place to observe others If the pains to a man has to apprehend from the displeasure of the Deity are not pains of the body; they are as the Scriptures seem to intimate, they are at least pains, which men could have no notion of, nor therefore be influenced by, if it were not for the pains of the body.
If it be the 2dcond that governed him, it is
plain according to our authors own account
that the pleasure he enjoys is a pleasure originating in the body: for the pleasure
of thinking that he exempts himself from
the pains inflicted by the Law. Now all
these pains are without dispute referable
to the body.
If it be either the 3d or 4th, it is the pleasure
of reflecting that he has preserved escaped a
pain: the pain of be forfeiting the esteem; & the or
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extreme if another word pleases better the good will of those about him.
Now what is it that esteem is good for? is it
good of itself, or for something it procures?
If it is That it is - good of itself, I would beg him to one may allow him after he has
tells me, told us + beg leave to ask him with , how much pleasure a man would
find in reflecting that a sort the esteem of a set of beings from
when he had neither good nor harm to apprehend
from; the inhabitants of Saturn
for example (supposing there are any) or
the that inhabitants of a drop or two of stale vinegar?
If I ask him what riches or power are
good for, he agrees with us, and has his answer ready — he
nows that they produce afford pleasure in virtue
of the pleasures of the body bodily <add>physical enjoyments of which</add> they # # may procure him are the pledges
and the physical sufferances against which
they + + may ensure him are a defence. to these objects at least, he says it
is but too common for men to refer exclusively
their riches and their power the benefits of these means as he calls them.. What They are
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valuable therefore as means only — for in what no
other light does he speak of them — And
what else they are valuable as means to
he does not tell us, nor on what did they other
are reliable on account of when they they are valued, too,
when they are valued as any other then this as he seems to intimate
they may be on another besides this
that he has mentioned.
If they are valuable on any account of any
thing else the th besides the pleasures of the body
they are means to, it must be the pleasures
of the mind. But these he has himself
reduced to two kinds the two we have just
mentioned above namely the pleasure of
thinking that one is fulfulling one's duty
which is that we are now considering: &
that of the fear of truth, or of being satisfied with the evidence of
things as they appear to us.
The last mentioned of these pleasures we are to come
to by and by. As to the other, it could hardly
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III Maupertuis
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