Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/224

210 BEENAED BOSANQUET : as I said, not quite simple. On looking into the author's account, we note that he appeals to introspection mainly for the fact that such cases exist, and that we feel ourselves able to decide them, and that we should not admit our decision to be merely capricious. That, in deciding them, we compare totals of pleasure and pain, is not so much accepted from introspection as argued from the impossibility of any other alternative in face of the admissions of introspection. Perhaps we might try to carry the matter a little further in the province of introspection, and see what result we can get. There are well-known cases in which we seem to come as near as we ever can to the attempt to balance totals of agreeables and disagreeables against each other on their own merits. I am thinking especially of the deliberations in which we make plans for a holiday tour, when we have to choose a route of travel with longer or shorter sea passage, to decide whether to take tickets for train de luxe or first or second class, whether and when to break the journey, and so on. Now obviously we do go over in our minds the pros and cons of plans consisting of such combinations as these, and we try, in some way or other, to balance the several plans against each other with regard to their respective agreeables or disagreeables. Probably experiences will differ as to how far we can make up anything like a sum-total of pleasantness in favour of each plan. I should be inclined to say that we do not succeed in getting anything like a single resultant of pleasantness or unpleasantness for each alternative plan, but continue to think over the attractive and unattractive ele- ments of each as so many distinct features of it. No doubt we arrive at being aware that one plan has more disagreeables attaching to it than another, and we form an impression whether another plan has any grave inconveniences which outweigh this number of nuisances. But, so far as my experience goes, I do not believe that one arrives at a con- sideration of each plan, including all its attractions and the reverse, as a homogeneous amount, in which the items are merged. 1 We keep recurring, rather, to the actual content of each plan, and consider how far it corresponds to what we want ; that is to say, how far its details do or do not satisfy the conditions failing which we should pronounce our holiday "spoilt". This comparison then is hardly a true quantitative comparison. It passes from enumeration with 1 This is surely the true test whether or no we have got a quantitative total. In a true " sum " the peculiarities of the items are lost. 200 Ib. is 200 Ib. whether you are weighing children or coal. If the nature of the items affects your choice your choice is not based on quantity.