The pleasures of health, repose, and general contentment, form no mean part of the happiness of poverty. "The rich Have wakeful nights, whilst the poor man's turf Begets a peaceful sleep.” 'O blissful poverty ! Nature too partial to thy lot assigns Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peace, Her real goods.'" The idea of repose mingled with social pleasures is here brought out: Be honest poverty thy boasted wealth; So shall thy friendships be sincere, though few, So shall thy sleep be sound, thy waking cheerful.' A very important set of pleasures associated with poverty is that embracing the delights of toil which is the inheritance of the poor. 'What doth the poor man's son inherit? Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, A hardy frame, a hardier spirit; King of two hands, he does his part In every useful toil and art; A heritage, it seems to me, A king might wish to hold in fee.'4 It is unnecessary to pursue the illustration of poverty's amelioration further. We will conclude, therefore, with a quotation from Herodotus, in which the benefits of riches and opposing advantages of poverty are referred to : The rich man indeed is better able to indulge his passions and to bear up against any harm that may befall him. The poor man's condition prevents him from enjoying such advantages; but then as a set-off, he may possess strength of body, freedom from disease, a mind relieved from many of the ills of life; is blessed in his children and active in his limbs.'5 § 49. In the preceding pages under this subdivision we have now, I think, reviewed the chief groups of pleasures and pains which lie in and about wealth and poverty. Though I have not taken the trouble specifically to analyse every illustration and argue the case for each one, it seems to me, in the light of the expositions in this and the former chapters, sufficiently clear that we have in these pleasures and pains nothing which is not redu1 Goffe's Careless Shepherdess. Havard's Regulus. J. R. Lowell. 2 Fenton's Marianne. 5 cible in the last resort to the primary; that we have in sooth nothing original here, but only derivative and representative pleasures and pains, new only in the new groupings made of materials already familiar. REPUTATION. § 50. A great object of effort with mankind is reputation. Some are ready to do anything for the sake of fame, and are not always anxious that their fame shall be a good repute; with such, notoriety at all hazards is the watch word. Under this head, therefore, we shall consider the pleasures of good reputation and fame generally. On the other side, the corresponding pains naturally group themselves into two collections, the one embracing pains of bad repute, and the other evils of obscurity. All these pleasures and pains are social in their character and consequent upon a state of society. Were there only one human being in the world, he could have none of either pleasures or pains growing out of reputation; for reputation implies and means appreciation by other sentient beings. The primary pleasure of society is, therefore, intimately concerned in the pleasures which are now before us for consideration. The appetite for fame or notoriety seems to include something more than pleasure of the approval of other beings like ourselves; and yet it will be found the case, probably, that the former is after all but an extension of the latter. The man who is in search after fame is seeking approval. Nobody wishes to be known and cursed. Where fame is sought irrespective of the benedictions and maledictions of one's fellows, there is usually a considerable degree of love of power and eagerness for control, mingled with the craving for notoriety. There may be a love of applause simply, or a love of applause and of power together, the last sometimes overmastering the other. 6 § 51. We all consider what is thought of us by those around us as a substantial good. Trust in our uprightness of character, belief in our abilities, and the desire that arises from this to be more intimately connected with us and to gain our good opinion, everything of this kind, is often a more valuable treasure than great riches.'1 "Who shall pretend to calculate the value of the inheritance of a good name? Its benefit is often great when dependent on no 1 Schleiermacher. stronger ties than those which accident or relationships have created, but when it flows from friendships which have been consecrated by piety and learning, when it is the willing offering of kindred minds to departed worth or genius, it takes a higher character, and is not less honourable to those who receive than to those who confer it. It comes generally from the best sources, and is directed to the best ends; and it carries with it an influence which powerfully disposes all worthy persons to co-operate in its views. Nor is this all; the consciousness of the source from which it springs is wont to stimulate the exertions and to elevate the views of those who are the objects of it; and many instances might be enumerated of persons who have laid the foundation of the very highest fortunes upon no other ground than that which this goodly inheritance has supplied.'' In these two extracts we notice prominently and chiefly the pleasures of society. In the last we remark also the pleasures of movement and exercise, and the pleasures of wealth. A good name stimulates to action and enables our action to tell, while also it is the means of securing fortune. § 52. The possession of good repute as such seems to carry with it almost no drawbacks. The knowledge that one has a good reputation may sometimes operate to relax energy and cause one to rely more upon others than is wise. And frequently, where the reputation is especially fair, its possessor is a prey to the curious malice and hatred of others; by this means what was good reputation may be turned into bad, with all the attendant evils. § 53. Let us now look at that extension of the pleasure of good repute which is characterised by the term Fame. 'Of all rewards, I grant, the most pleasing to a man of real merit is fame.' 2 I have already adverted to the pleasures of society and those pleasures which go to make up the pleasures of power as chief constituents in the pleasure of fame. To these there should be added the very important element of immortality. Fame causes us to live longer and extends beyond our death our influence. This is a variety of the pleasure of living as opposed to dying and disintegration. The love of life, perpetuity of existence, is native, appetitive, and strong in the human breast. Fame contributes in a considerable degree to satisfy that desire. All these pleasures now enumerated we have heretofore analysed. The idea of perpetuity is well brought out in the familiar lines: 'Exegi monumentum aere perennius, Jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis, Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.' ' § 54. Like the advantages of fame, so its evils arise from the social state. One who has fame is exposed to envy, slander, malice, and violence. Fame is seldom unaccompanied with power, and the jealousy of men is directed against its possessor: 'Knows he that mankind praise against their will, We thus see that one of the evils of fame is that it is likely to bring upon one the misfortunes of bad reputation. An argument for the emptiness and worthlessness of fame is found in the following: Vain, empty words Of honour, glory, and immortal fame, Can these recall the spirit from its place, Or re-inspire the breathless clay with life? What tho' your fame with all its thousand trumpets Sound o'er the sepulchres, will that awake The sleeping dead ?' 4 A great many evils attend the love of fame. As the pursuit of money and of power grows into an absorbing pleasure of itself, so the eager following after fame is an absorbing delight. Most of the pleasures and pains occurring in such a pursuit and arising out of the love of fame are covered by the word ambition, some of whose ills are thus set forth by the poets : I Horatius. 'Ambition hath but two steps; the lowest, O dire ambition! What infernal power 2 Young's Night Thoughts. Sewell, Sir Walter Raleigh. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure. 6 Brown, Barbarossa. Lilly, Midas. 'Who soars too near the sun with golden wings, A storm where on they ride to sink at last.'? Sometimes poverty attends the pursuit of fame, as in the case of those who seek a literary or artistic reputation. § 55. The evils of extreme bad reputation are seen in the woe that befalls the murderer, who is hunted and pursued wherever he goes. The pains of bad reputation generally may be divided into two general classes, those that arise from the tendency a bad reputation has to drive people away from its possessor, and those arising from its tendency to induce people to injure him who has bad repute. The former class are the ills of solitude, the latter those of enmity, hostility, aggression, as experienced by him against whom they are directed. Both these divisions have already received sufficient treatment in other places. It seems to me that the pains of obscurity are almost wholly negative. They are the pains arising from the absence of the pleasures of fame. Obscurity in itself is not painful. It is only offensive by comparison. When one thinks of the advantages and joys which a wide reputation gives, present obscurity is a source of pain. Seeing what others have, and having, perhaps, in some degree tasted the sweets of fame, a curtailment of those enjoyments or deprivation of them is hard to bear. The limitation of activity, relative impotence, lack of deference of one's fellows, poverty sometimes, all enter more or less into the pains of obscurity. With these pains also are associated those of oblivion. The latter are nothing other than the pains of death as opposed to immortality. The inconveniences of obscurity are very prominently counterbalanced by the pleasures of retirement. These are held by many to be far superior to the joys of fame. Sometimes, however, as in the case of the literary man, retirement is only a means by which a greater fame is aimed to be reached. § 56. In closing this division, I cannot do better than quote the following as still another expression here applied to Reputation and Fame, of the doctrine which has over and over again been brought forward and urged in these pages-the doctrine of the inter-connection and association of all the pleasures and pains:Shakspeare, Cromwell. Byron, Childe Harold. 2 |