change.

The Relativity of Pleasures, although admitted in many individual cases,
has often been misconceived. The view is sometimes expressed, that there
can be no pleasure without a previous pain; but this goes beyond the
exigencies of the principle. We cannot go on for ever with any delight;
but mere remission, without any counterpart pain, is enough for our
entering with zest on many of our pleasures. A healthy man enjoys his
meals without any sensible previous pain of hunger. We do not need to
have been miserable for some time as a preparation for the reading of a
new poem. It is true that if the sense of privation has been acute, the
pleasure is proportionally increased; and that few pleasures of any
great intensity grow up from indifference: still, remission and
alternation may give a zest for enjoyment without any consciousness of
pain.

The principle of Comparison is capriciously made use of by Paley, in his
account of the elements of Happiness. He applies it forcibly and
felicitously to depreciate certain pleasures--as greatness, rank, and
station--and withholds its application from the pleasures that he more
particularly countenances,--namely, the social affections, the exercise
of the faculties, and health.

* * * * *

[SIMPLICITY OF STYLE A RELATIVE MERIT.]

The great praise often accorded to Simplicity of Style, in literature,
is an example of the suppression of the correlative in a case of mutual
relationship. Simplicity is not an absolute merit; it is frequently a