Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/474

MR. JAMES WARD'S " PSYCHOLOGY ". 473 simple and ultimate fact the principle of intensity, Mr. Ward thinks it needful to explain the limitations of the pleasurable degree by two considerations. The one is that attention shall be forthcoming adequate to the intensity. I doubt if this can be called a better explanation than merely saying that the forces (nervous and other) are limited and liable to exhaustion, whence pain follows, which is the law of self-conservation over again. The other explanatory circum- stance is that a pleasurable quality is one that enlarges the field of consciousness ; in other words, connects itself with exuberant spirits, buoyancy and animation : which is to fall back again on the organic state, as conditioned by physical vigour. The dependence of pleasure on duration and frequency is more easy to account for. The second class of feelings comprises the combinations of simple sensations and movements, or the lower aesthetic feelings of harmony and discord. On these the author gives probably everything that can be advanced in our present knowledge. The third class carries us into the region of intellect, and comprises the free or obstructed flow of ideas. These feelings are about the easiest of any to explain ; yet in them too we cannot dispense with a reference to the economy of vital power. The fourth class takes in the higher sesthetic feelings, such as unity in variety, where the principle of economy is largely involved ; likewise the wide-ranging associations of agreeable or disagreeable effects. There is no serious difficulty to surmount in this region. The author's fifth and last class he terms feelings related to self, or the egoistic and altruistic feelings. These are the pleasures of self-complacency and self-satisfaction, and the pains of disappointment and failure. Instead of plunging into these complications, which need a much more elaborate handling, I could have wished him to discuss such leading emotions as fear, love, anger ; these being obviously more elementary than what he dwells upon. The general doctrine that there is pleasure according as a maximum of attention is effectively exercised, is ingeniously applied to the seemingly exceptional case of sleepiness. Here the field of consciousness is contracting, it is true, but then attention or activity is contracting still more, while the smallest attempt to arouse it brings on the acute pain of conflict. A much simpler explanation could be plausibly maintained. The author faces another great and standing controversy 32