How is it then that no one feels Pleasure continuously? is it not that
he wearies, because all human faculties are incapable of unintermitting
exertion; and so, of course, Pleasure does not arise either, because
that follows upon the act of Working. But there are some things which
please when new, but afterwards not in the like way, for exactly the
same reason: that at first the mind is roused and works on these
Objects with its powers at full tension; just as they who are gazing
stedfastly at anything; but afterwards the act of Working is not of the
kind it was at first, but careless, and so the Pleasure too is dulled.
Again, a person may conclude that all men grasp at Pleasure, because
all aim likewise at Life and Life is an act of Working, and every man
works at and with those things which also he best likes; the musical
man, for instance, works with his hearing at music; the studious man
with his intellect at speculative questions, and so forth. And Pleasure
perfects the acts of Working, and so Life after which men grasp. No
wonder then that they aim also at Pleasure, because to each it perfects
Life, which is itself choice-worthy. (We will take leave to omit the
question whether we choose Life for Pleasure’s sake of Pleasure for
Life’s sake; because these two plainly are closely connected and admit
not of separation; since Pleasure comes not into being without Working,
and again, every Working Pleasure perfects.)
And this is one reason why Pleasures are thought to differ in kind,
because we suppose that things which differ in kind must be perfected
by things so differing: it plainly being the case with the productions
of Nature and Art; as animals, and trees, and pictures, and statues,
and houses, and furniture; and so we suppose that in like manner acts
of Working which are different in kind are perfected by things
differing in kind. Now Intellectual Workings differ specifically from
those of the Senses, and these last from one another; therefore so do
the Pleasures which perfect them.
This may be shown also from the intimate connection subsisting between
each Pleasure and the Working which it perfects: I mean, that the
Pleasure proper to any Working increases that Working; for they who
work with Pleasure sift all things more closely and carry them out to a
greater degree of nicety; for instance, those men become geometricians
who take Pleasure in geometry, and they apprehend particular points
more completely: in like manner men who are fond of music, or
architecture, or anything else, improve each on his own pursuit,
because they feel Pleasure in them. Thus the Pleasures aid in
increasing the Workings, and things which do so aid are proper and
peculiar: but the things which are proper and peculiar to others
specifically different are themselves also specifically different.