Too Long; Didn't Read

Having examined the intellectual powers, we will now attend to the next general class, denominated the susceptibilities. When the mind is in a state of emotion, this state is always either pleasurable or painful. Desire relates to the attainment of some object which will be the cause of pleasurable emotions, or else to the avoidance of something which will cause painful emotions. This desire for pleasure and for the avoidance of pain is the mainspring of all mental activity; for when it is not in existence, neither the powers of the mind or of the body are called into exercise. There are various sources of enjoyment or causes of pleasurable emotion to the mind of man, the most important of which will now be pointed out. The first cause of enjoyment at the commencement of existence is that of sensation.[2] This, at first, is small in amount compared with what it becomes when association lends its aid to heighten sensitive enjoyment. The light of day, the brilliancy of color, the sweetness of perfume, the gratification of taste and touch, the magic influence of sound, and the pleasure resulting from muscular activity, are probably the {110}chief sources of enjoyment to the infant mind. As life advances, all these modes of sensitive gratification become connected with others of an intellectual and moral nature, so that at mature years it is difficult to determine how much of the enjoyment we derive from the senses is the result of association, and how much is simply that of sensation.

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