There is no pain or pleasure in the world, But as he feels th’ reality in self, Or fancies it by signs in other men. This fancied pain is never _real_ pain, But yields a _real_ reflex. Others’ pain Is never pain to us, unless we know It does exist. Within a hundred yards A neighbor dies, in agony intense, And yet we feel no slightest trace of pain, Unless informed thereof. ’Tis only when we know, And therefore are affected, that we feel. The modes of pain and pleasure are then two, A real and a fancied one. The first acute, In ratio of our sensibilities; The last in ratio of our image-power. These gifts in different men unequal are, And hence life’s varied phases. One may deem A real pain far greater than a pain In fancy formed, from others’ sufferings; He eats alone, and drives the starving off. Another’s fancy paints more vividly, And he endures keen hunger to supply The poor with food. And so of pleasure too,-- And this moves all to shun the greatest pain, And find the greatest pleasure. Different minds, And each at different times of life, possess A different standard of this highest good. The swaddled infant wails for its own food, Because its highest pleasure is alone in sense; The child will from its playmate hide a cake Until it learns that praise for sharing it Gives greater pleasure than the sweetened taste; One boy at school proves insubordinate, His schoolmates’ praise he deems his highest good; Another studies well, because he values more A parent’s smile. The murderer with his knife, The maiden praying in her purity, The miser dying over hoards of gold, The widow casting thither her two mites, A white-veil bending o’er the dying couch, A stained beauty floating through the waltz, The preacher’s zeal, the gambler’s eager zest; All have one motive, greatest good to self! The tender stop their ears, and cry aloud: “What! do you dare assert the gambler seeks With hellish zeal the faintest shade of good? That he is holy as the Man of God?” By no means, yet he seeks his good the same. Not good as you’ve been taught to apprehend, But good, the greatest to his frame of mind. Do not exclaim that good is always good, And never differs from itself. Anon We’ll speak of abstract truths, if such there be That good and pleasure are synonymous At times of action, is most surely plain; For pleasure’s but the consciousness of good, Or satisfaction of our tendencies. If all the gambler’s soul is bent on gain, Then at the moment gain is greatest good; But should you reason with him, and explain Another life, and make it really seem To him the best, he straight would change his course.