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APHORISMS
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vii. 12), "ὁ φρόνιμος τὸ ἄλυπον διώνκει οὺ τό ἥδυ: Not pleasure but freedom from pain is what the sensible man goes after." The second volume, of Detached though systematically Ordered Thoughts on Various Circumstances, is miscellaneous in its range of topics, and is full of suggestion; but the thoughts are mainly philosophical and literary, and do not come very close to practical wisdom. In truth, so negative a view of happiness, such pale hopes and middling expectations, could not guide a man far on the path of active prudence, where we take for granted that the goal is really something substantial, serious, solid, and positive.[1]
- ↑ Burke says on the point raised above: "I am satisfied that ideas of pain are much more powerful than those which enter on the part of pleasure. Without all doubt, the torments which we may be made to suffer are much greater in their effect on the body and mind than any pleasures which the most learned voluptuary could suggest. Nay, I am in great doubt whether any man could be found, who would earn a life of the most perfect satisfaction at the price of ending it in the torments which justice inflicted in a few hours on the late unfortunate regicide in France."—(Sublime and Beautiful, sec. vii.) The reference is, of course, to Damiens.
