Excerpt on Pleasure from Selden's "Table Talk".

Excerpt from

John Selden's

Table-Talk, 1689

[On Pleasure]

. . .  Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain, the enjoying of something I am in great trouble for till I have it.
     'Tis a wrong way to proportion other men's pleasures to ourselves ; 'tis like a little child using a little bird, “ O poor bird, thou shalt sleep with me ” ; so lays it in his bosom, and stifles it with his hot breath :  the bird had rather be in the cold air.  And yet too 'tis the most pleasing flattery, to like what other men like.
     'Tis most undoubtedly true, that all men are equally given to their pleasure ; only thus, one man's pleasure lies one way, and another's another.  Pleasures are all alike simply considered in themselves :  he that hunts, or he that governs the Commonwealth, they both please themselves alike, only we commend that, whereby we ourselves receive some benefit ;  as if a man place his delight in things that tend to the common good.  He that takes pleasure to hear sermons, enjoys himself as much as he that hears plays ;  and could he that loves plays endeavour to love sermons, possibly he might bring himself to it as well as to any other pleasure.  At first it may seem harsh and tedious, but afterwards 'twould be pleasing and delightful.  So it falls out in that which is the great pleasure of some men, tobacco ; at first they could not abide it, and now they cannot be without it.
     Whilst you are upon Earth, enjoy the good things that are here (to that end were they given), and be not melancholy, and wish yourself in heaven.  If a king should give you the keeping of a castle, with all things belonging to it, orchards, gardens, &c., and bid you use them ;  withal promise you that, after twenty years to remove you to the Court, and to make you a Privy Counsellor ;  if you should neglect your castle, and refuse to eat those fruits, and sit down, and whine, and wish you were a Privy Counsellor, do you think the King would be pleased with you ?

Excerpted from:
English Literature: An Illustrated Record. Vol II.
Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, Eds.
New York: The MacMillan Company, 1904. 388-389.

to Early 17th Century English Literature