form of the pleasure is sustained only by
new acquisitions and new discoveries. Moreover, in the minor forms of
the gratification due to knowledge, we never escape the law of
relativity; the "power" delights us by relation to our previous
impotence. Plato supposed that, in knowledge, we have an example of a
_pure_ pleasure, meaning one that had no reference to foregone privation
or pain; but such "purity" would be a barren fact, not unlike the pure
air of a bladeless and waterless desert. A state of uninterrupted good
health, although a prime condition of enjoyment, is of itself a state of
neutrality or indifference. The man that has never been ill cannot sing
the joys of health; the exultation of that strain is attainable only by
the valetudinarian.

* * * * *

These examples have been remarked upon in every age. It is the moral
weakness of being carried away by a present strong feeling, as if the
state would last for ever, that blinds each of us in turn to the stern
reality of the fact. There are, however, numerous instances, coming
under Relativity, wherein the indispensable correlative is more or less
dropped out of sight and disavowed. These are the proper errors or
fallacies of Relativity, a branch of the comprehensive class termed
"Fallacies of Confusion". The object of the present essay is to exhibit
a few of these errors as they occur in questions of practical moment.

* * * * *

When it is said, as by Carlyle and others, "speech is silvern, silence
is golden," there is implied a condition of things where speech has been
in excess; and but for this excess, the assertion is untrue. One might
as well talk of the delights of hunger, or of cold, or of solitary
confinement, on the ground of there being times when food, warmth, or
society may be in excess, and when the opposing states would be a joyful
change.

The Relativity of Pleasures, although admitted in many individual cases,
has often been misconceived. The view is sometimes expressed, that there
can be no pleasure without a previous pain; but this goes beyond the
exigencies of the principle. We cannot go on for ever with any delight;
but mere remission, without any counterpart pain, is enough for our
entering with zest on many of our pleasures. A healthy man enjoys his
meals without any sensible previous pain of hunger. We do not need to
have been miserable for some time as a preparation for