Pagina 437 de 734

Next, it does not follow that there must be something else better

than any given pleasure because (as some say) the End must be

better than the process which creates it. For it is not true that

all Pleasures are processes or even attended by any process, but

(some are) active workings or even Ends: in fact they result not

from our coming to be something but from our using our powers.

Again, it is not true that the End is, in every case, distinct

from the process: it is true only in the case of such processes

as conduce to the perfecting of the natural state.

For which reason it is wrong to say that Pleasure is "a sensible

process of production." For "process etc." should be substituted

"active working of the natural state," for "sensible"

"unimpeded." The reason of its being thought to be a "process

etc." is that it is good in the highest sense: people confusing

"active working" and "process," whereas they really are distinct.