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He dwells upon the relative and unreal character of sensual

pleasures and the illusion which arises out of the contrast of

pleasure and pain, pointing out the superiority of the pleasures

of reason, which are at rest, over the fleeting pleasures of

sense and emotion. The pre-eminence of royal pleasure is shown by

the fact that reason is able to form a judgment of the lower

pleasures, while the two lower parts of the soul are incapable of

judging the pleasures of reason. Thus, in his treatment of

pleasure, as in many other subjects, the philosophy of Plato is

'sawn up into quantities' by Aristotle; the analysis which was

originally made by him became in the next generation the

foundation of further technical distinctions.