He had a power to suspend his determination; it
was given him, that he might examine, and take care of his own
happiness, and look that he were not deceived. And he could never
judge, that it was better to be deceived than not, in a matter of so
great and near concernment.
58. Why men choose what makes them miserable. What has been said may
also discover to us the reason why men in this world prefer
different things, and pursue happiness by contrary courses. But yet,
since men are always constant and in earnest in matters of happiness
and misery, the question still remains, How men come often to prefer
the worse to the better; and to choose that, which, by their own
confession, has made them miserable?
59. The causes of this. To account for the various and contrary ways
men take, though all aim at being happy, we must consider whence the
various uneasinesses that determine the will, in the preference of
each voluntary action, have their rise:
(1) From bodily pain. Some of them come from causes not in our
power; such as are often the pains of the body from want, disease,
or outward injuries, as the rack, &c.; which, when present and
violent, operate for the most part forcibly on the will, and turn
the courses of men's lives from virtue, piety, and religion, and
what before they judged to lead to happiness; every one not
endeavouring, or, through disuse, not being able, by the contemplation
of remote and future good, to raise in himself desires of them
strong enough to counterbalance the uneasiness he feels in those
bodily torments, and to keep his will steady in the choice of those
actions which lead to future happiness.
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