Hence it comes that, at any rate, we desire to be rid of the present evil, which we are apt to think nothing absent can equal; because, under the present pain, we find not ourselves capable of any the least degree of happiness.

Men's daily complaints are a loud proof of this: the pain that any one actually feels is still of all other the worst; and it is with anguish they cry out,--'Any rather than this: nothing can be so intolerable as what I now suffer.' And therefore our whole endeavours and thoughts are intent to get rid of the present evil, before all things, as the first necessary condition to our happiness; let what will follow.

Nothing, as we passionately think, can exceed, or almost equal, the uneasiness that sits so heavy upon us.

And because the abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes a very great one, the desire being inflamed by a near and tempting object, it is no wonder that that operates after the same manner pain does, and lessens in our thoughts what is future; and so forces us, as it were blindfold, into its embraces.
67.

Absent good unable to counterbalance present uneasiness.
Add to this, that absent good, or, which is the same thing, future pleasure,--especially if of a sort we are unacquainted with,--seldom is able to counterbalance any uneasiness, either of pain or desire, which is present.