forgetting; this, however, arises from a subsequent act of reflection, of
which we need take no account. At the same time, we admit that the latter
pleasures are the property of a very few. To these pure and unmixed
pleasures we ascribe measure, whereas all others belong to the class of the
infinite, and are liable to every species of excess. And here several
questions arise for consideration:--What is the meaning of pure and impure,
of moderate and immoderate? We may answer the question by an illustration:
Purity of white paint consists in the clearness or quality of the white,
and this is distinct from the quantity or amount of white paint; a little
pure white is fairer than a great deal which is impure. But there is
another question:--Pleasure is affirmed by ingenious philosophers to be a
generation; they say that there are two natures--one self-existent, the
other dependent; the one noble and majestic, the other failing in both
these qualities. 'I do not understand.' There are lovers and there are
loves. 'Yes, I know, but what is the application?' The argument is in
play, and desires to intimate that there are relatives and there are
absolutes, and that the relative is for the sake of the absolute; and
generation is for the sake of essence. Under relatives I class all things
done with a view to generation; and essence is of the class of good. But
if essence is of the class of good, generation must be of some other class;
and our friends, who affirm that pleasure is a generation, would laugh at
the notion that pleasure is a good; and at that other notion, that pleasure
is produced by generation, which is only the alternative of destruction.
Who would prefer such an alternation to the equable life of pure thought?
Here is one absurdity, and not the only one, to which the friends of
pleasure are reduced. For is there not also an absurdity in affirming that
good is of the soul only; or in declaring that the best of men, if he be in
pain, is bad?

And now, from the consideration of pleasure, we pass to that of knowledge.