Outlines Of Psychology An Elementary Treatise PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... " O moment, stay, thou art so fair." As a fact, the Devil leads Faust through the entire round of sense pleasures and worldly felicities, without being able to get this report from the hero, until a situation is reached, in the closing scene of Faust's life, which does not here concern us. But from the psychological point of view, it is indeed possible that pleasure should be associated with a relatively, although never absolutely, perfect feeling of quiescence. In this case the pleasure is of the kind that satisfies. The conscious attitude is then one, not of seeking for more pleasure, but of desiring nothing more, and nothing other than what we have. The attainment of this state is indeed never complete, but constitutes an ideal limit of our conscious search for pleasure. 69. The relation of pleasure and displeasure, and of restlessness and quiescence, to consciousness in general, is somewhat different. The painful is capable of coming very prominently and very intensely to consciousness. Seldom does pleasure compare in its intensity with the degree of consciousness which the unpleasant often attains. On the other hand, there is nothing in the nature of pleasure which forbids our being decidedly and intensely conscious of its presence. Restlessness, however, is distinctly more capable of becoming intense in consciousness than is quiescence. The feeling of quiescence, or the tendency in our feelings which I intend to characterise by the word, can indeed be present to consciousness; but, on the whole, quiescence never becomes entirely complete so long as consciousness persists. It might be objected to my whole account that quiescence means rather the absence of disquiet, or of restlessness, than the presence of any positive...