And, therefore, that which of course determines the choice of our will to the next action will always be--the removing of pain, as long as we have any left, as the first and necessary step towards happiness.
37.

Because Uneasiness alone is present.
Another reason why it is uneasiness alone determines the will, is this: because that alone is present and, it is against the nature of things, that what is absent should operate where it is not.

It may be said that absent good may, by contemplation, be brought home to the mind and made present.

The idea of it indeed may be in the mind and viewed as present there; but nothing will be in the mind as a present good, able to counterbalance the removal of any uneasiness which we are under, till it raises our desire; and the uneasiness of that has the prevalency in determining the will.

Till then, the idea in the mind of whatever is good is there only, like other ideas, the object of bare unactive speculation; but operates not on the will, nor sets us on work; the reason whereof I shall show by and by.