[Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics by Alexander Bain]@TWC D-Link bookMoral Science; A Compendium of Ethics PART II 275/699
The two grateful perceptions of Novelty and Grandeur may be added to the list of natural determinations or senses of pleasure.
To attempt to reduce the natural sense of Beauty to the discernment of real or apparent usefulness is hopeless.
The next sense of the soul noted is the Sympathetic, in its two Phases of Pity or Compassion and Congratulation.
This is fellow-feeling on apprehending the state of others, and proneness to relieve, without any thought of our own advantage, as seen in children. Pity is stronger than congratulation, because, whether for ourselves or others, the desire to repel evil is stronger than to pursue good. Sympathy extends to all the affections and passions; it greatly subserves the grand determination of the soul towards universal happiness. Other finer senses have actions of men for their objects, there being a general determination of the soul to exercise all its active powers,--a universal impulse to action, bodily and intellectual.
In all such action there is real pleasure, but the grand source of human happiness is the power of perceiving the _moral_ notions of actions and characters.
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