For,
since nothing of pleasure and pain in this life can bear any
proportion to the endless happiness or exquisite misery of an immortal
soul hereafter, actions in his power will have their preference, not
according to the transient pleasure or pain that accompanies or
follows them here, but as they serve to secure that perfect durable
happiness hereafter.
63. A more particular account of wrong judgments. But, to account
more particularly for the misery that men often bring on themselves,
notwithstanding that they do all in earnest pursue happiness, we
must consider how things come to be represented to our desires under
deceitful appearances: and that is by the judgment pronouncing wrongly
concerning them. To see how far this reaches, and what are the
causes of wrong judgment, we must remember that things are judged good
or bad in a double sense:-
First, That which is properly good or bad, is nothing but barely
pleasure or pain.
Secondly, But because not only present pleasure and pain, but that
also which is apt by its efficacy or consequences to bring it upon
us at a distance, is a proper object of our desires, and apt to move a
creature that has foresight; therefore things also that draw after
them pleasure and pain, are considered as good and evil.
64. No one chooses misery willingly, but only by wrong judgment.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390