date

1818 Jan y 1 Not Paul III.
1818 Jan y 1

Not Paul

III. Doctrine Asceticism

Ch. Asceticism continued

§. 4. Sensibility condemned

§. 4. War made by Asceticism against the pleasures of sense—its

groundlessness.

The pleasures against which the sharpest /most [...?]/ war has thus been kept up the

pleasures which have borne the principal marks of this hostility have been the

pleasures of the table and the pleasures of the bed.

The pleasures of the table have been dealt boldly enough with, but the pleasures of

the be, as being the more intense have been dealt with still worse. The pleasures of

the table could not be /have been/ struck out altogether: for with them if struck

out, forasmuch as from the satisfaction of /given to/ the appetite of hunger and

thirst it is possible that pleasure should be altogether excluded life itself the

life of each and every individual would be struck out: and by the ascetic life can

not be parted with—for in that case all pains would vanish with it—and to the votary

of asceticism life is indispensable, as being the only receptacle into which pains

can be inserted: accordingly when by the /his own/ supposition/ such is a man’s

condition that life has been emptied /bereft/ of all its pleasures, then it is that

his anxiety to preserve it is extreme: and by parting with life to obtain deliverance

in a /one and the same/ moment from all pains, this as it is the last and the most

comprehensive is in his eyes of all ones the most flagitious and unpardonable.
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    Description: 1818 Jan y 1

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    III. Doctrine Asceticism

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    The pleasures of the table, it has been seen, so obstinately

    do they adhere to life can not be struck out by the ascetic, because in that case

    pains would be struck out /go out along with them/, pains which it is his object to

    accumulate.

    With the pleasures of the bed he finds himself more at liberty: they may be struck

    out altogether /life may be cleared of them/. Take any individual whatever—deprive

    him of all pleasure in this shape, life remains notwithstanding. To be sure if indeed

    you were to go so far as to extend the proscription /extirpation/ to every individual

    life would within a limited time be extirpated along with it: and thus pain the only

    object which in his view is worth preserving the object to which in his eyes life is

    indebted for all its value pain would likewise be at and end. Therefore to keep on

    foot /the capacity/ so many receptacles of pain, human beings must be kept alive the

    population must be kept up: and to the number of those in whose instance life is

    purified of all pleasure in this shape, must be limited /limits must somehow or other

    be set/.

    But the number of breeders necessary to keep up the greatest number of non-breeders

    being ascertained, then it is that the number of persons from whose existence

    pleasure in this shape is excluded ought to be as great as possible. In the character

    of /As being/ the best security for the accomplishment of so holy /desirable/ an

    object, a physical cause of exclusion castration so it be early enough might seem

    /present/ itself as preferable to /still more advantageous than/ any moral one. But

    the inconvenience /here the objection/ is that along with the pleasures are excluded

    certain pains—the pains of unsatisfied desire. Whereas when the means of exclusion

    /recourse employed/ are /is/ confined to the use of moral means, the pleasures alone

    are excluded the stock of pains remains pure and unadulterated.
  • Title: [1817 Nov 19 Not Paul II. Doctrine]
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    §.1. Negative proof

    Among the items contained in /Of the two classes in one or other of which are

    comprizable/ the list of pleasures of which the list of pleasures is composed, those

    to which the attacks of asceticism have applied themselves with greatest energy are

    the pleasures of sense: and among those of sense that in which the individual, and

    that in which the species respectively depend for their preservation say pleasures of

    the palate /table/ and sexual pleasures /pleasures of the bed/.

    On no occasion against either of these classes in the aggregate or against any one

    modification of them taken separately among the sayings of Jesus, as recorded in any

    one of the four Gospel histories, will so much as a single /any one/ saying, whereby

    directly or indirectly any mark of reprobation is cast upon any of these pleasures,

    be found.

    Of the truth of this position a proof more summary and more satisfactory than negative as is the complexion of it, might readily have been

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  • Title: [1818 1 Jan y Not Paul III.]
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    If all pleasure every sensation of the pleasurable kind were taken away, life would be left altogether without value: it would all be being without well-being being it would have, well-being it would have none. But if all pleasure /sensations of the pleasurable kind/ were taken away, pain /those of the painful kind/ would not thereby be taken away: life would be an alternation of pain and insensibility: life would be the condition of the only perceptible /sensible/ part of it: a stone would be an object of envy to a man living such a life.

    That either pride or terror had ever gone so far as to extend the proscriptions directly and purposely to the pleasures of the mind, it might perhaps be too much to say: not so that they have included in it all pleasures of the body of which the body is in any part the seat. Yet if sensation were taken away understanding goes /would go/ along with it: if all pleasures of the body were taken away along with them would go the pleasures of the mind.

    With all this before their eyes for to what eyes can it ever have been unobvious men so far gone in asceticism have nevertheless not been wanting /yet been found/ to whom pleasure has been an object of unceasing war /hostility and proscription/ wherever they have found or fancied it. In the lump under that its generic name collectively and again in any particular shape in which they have seen it or supposed it to be lurking!