Another reason is that, except in mere matters of eating and
drinking, people do not realise the importance of finding out what it
is that gives them pleasure if, that is to say, they would make
themselves as comfortable here as they reasonably can. Very few,
however, seem to care greatly whether they are comfortable or no.
There are some men so ignorant and careless of what gives them
pleasure that they cannot be said ever to have been really born as
living beings at all. They present some of the phenomena of having
been born--they reproduce, in fact, so many of the ideas which we
associate with having been born that it is hard not to think of them
as living beings--but in spite of all appearances the central idea is
wanting. At least one half of the misery which meets us daily might
be removed or, at any rate, greatly alleviated, if those who suffer
by it would think it worth their while to be at any pains to get rid
of it. That they do not so think is proof that they neither know,
nor care to know, more than in a very languid way, what it is that
will relieve them most effectually or, in other words, that the shoe
does not really pinch them so hard as we think it does. For when it
really pinches, as when a man is being flogged, he will seek relief
by any means in his power. So my great namesake said, "Surely the
pleasure is as great Of being cheated as to cheat"; and so, again, I
remember to have seen a poem many years ago in Punch according to
which a certain young lady, being discontented at home, went out into
the world in quest to "Some burden make or burden bear, But which she
did not greatly care--Oh Miseree!" So long as there was discomfort
somewhere it was all right.
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