MS 447-454 (1903) - Lowell Lecture I

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nevertheless the determination of my being does influence my conduct. All action in accordance with a determination is accompanied by a feeling that is pleasurable; but whether this feeling at any instant is felt as pleasurable in that very instant or whether the recognition of it as pleasurable comes a little later is a question of fact difficult to make sure about, and therefore it is necessary, in order to judge of it to get at the facts about that feeling as accurately as we can. In beginning to perform any series of acts which had been determined upon beforehand, there is a certain sense of joy, an anticipation and commencement of a relaxion of the tension of need, which we now become more conscioud of than we had been before. In the act itself taking place at any instant, it may be that we are conscious of pleasure; although that is doubtful. Before

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the series of acts are done, we already begin to review them, and in that review we recognize the pleasurable character of the feelings that accompanied those acts. To return to my interview, as soon as it is over I begin to revire it more carefully and I then ask myself whether my conduct accorded with my resolution. That resolution, as we agreed was a mental formula. The memory of my action may be roughly described as a image. I contemplate that image and put the question to myself. Shall I say that that image satisfies the stipulations of my resolution, or not? The answer to this question, like the answer to any inward question, as necessarily of the nature of a mental formula. It is accompanied, however, by a certain quality of feeling which is related to the formula itself very much as the color of the ink in which anything is printed is related to the sense of what is printed. And just as we first

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become aware of the peculiar of the ink and afterwards ask ourselves whether it is agreeable or not, so in formulating the judgment that the image of our conduct does satisfy our previous resolution we are, in the very act of formulation, aware of a certain quality of feeling, - the feeling of satisfaction, - and directly afterwards recognize that that feling was pleasureable. But now I may probe deeper into my conduct; and may ask myslef whether it accorded with my general intentions. Here again there will be a judgement and a feeling accompanying it, and directly afterward a recognition that that feeling was pleasurable or painful. This judgement, if favorable, will probably afford less intense pleasure than the other; but the feeling of satisfaction which is pleasurable will be different and, as we say, a deeper feeling. I may now go still further and ask how the image of my conduct accords with my

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ideals of conduct fitting to a man like me. Here will follow a new judgment with its accopanying feeling followed by a recognition of the pleasurable or painful character of that feeling. In addition to these three self-criticisms of single series of actions, a man will from time to time review his ideals. This process is not a job that man sits down to do and have done with. The experience of life if continually contributing instances more or less illuminative. These are digested first not in the man's cnsciousness but un the depths of his reasonable being. The results come to consciousness later. But mediation seems to agitate a mass of tendencies and allow them more quickly to settle down so as to be really more conformed to what is fit for the man. Finally, in addition to the this personal meditation on the fitness of one's own ideals, which is of a practical nature, there are the purely theoretical studies of the student of ethics who seeks to

In any or all of these ways a man may critcize his own conduct; and it is essential to remark that it is not mere idle praise ot blame such as writers who are not of the wisest often distribute among the personages of history. No indeed! It is approval or diapproval of the only respectable kind, that which will bear fruit in the future. Whether the man is satisfied with himself or dissatisfied, his nature will absorb the lesson like a sponge; and the next time it will tend to do better than he did before.