§ 1. Introductory. — The pleasures and pains of ideational process have two sources. They are either due to a remnant of the feeling-tone of an actual sensation or perception persisting in ideal revival, or they arise independently in and through the ideational process itself as an activity directed toward an end. It must also be borne in mind that trains of ideational thought always have an accompaniment of organic sensation faint or intense. They occasion changes in the common sensibility, which have often a conspicuous feeling-tone.

§ 2. Revived Conditions of Feeling-Tone. — Feeling-Tone cannot be directly revived. Its recurrence depends on the reinstatement of the original conditions of production. Now the reproduction of the percept in the ideal image is at the best only partial, and we should therefore expect the revival of feeling-tone to be partial also. Much allowance must of course be made for differences between individuals; but it may be said generally that the pleasures and pains of actual sensation are very faintly echoed in the corresponding ideal images. Some apparent cases of intense revival are illusory, being really due to concomitant organic sensations. Thus the idea of undergoing a surgical operation may produce a widespread and intensely disagreeable disturbance of common sensibility; but the feeling-tone does not belong to the mere idea of being cut, etc. Excluding such cases, it would seem that strictly sensational pleasures and pains occur only to a very limited extent in ideal revival. We must however guard against making too absolute a statement. Probably persons who can visualise colours with great vividness can also enjoy them in their ideal reinstatement, in a way approaching more nearly the actual sense experience than persons who visualise poorly can readily comprehend.

The pleasures and pains due to perceptual combination in space and time are in general more perfectly recoverable by those who have a sufficient power of ideal imagery. The man who can visualise distinctly and vividly, may, in recalling before his mental eye a picture or a landscape, renew to a large extent his original enjoyment of it. There are some few persons gifted with an exceptional power of auditory revival who can enjoy music almost as well in reminiscence as in actual hearing. The main drawback they find is the effort which it costs them. Actual hearing is very much easier.

In actual perception an object may be pleasing or displeasing, not through the immediate feeling-tone of the sensations which it produces or their grouping in space and time, but through the previous experiences with which it has been connected. The sight of a bunch of grapes may give pleasure in part because we have had the experience of eating grapes. The feeling-tone is due to the reexcitement of the cumulative disposition left behind by previous experiences of the object. Now this cumulative disposition is also reexcited in ideal revival, and with it the feeling-tone. In general, the agreeableness or disagreeableness of the ideal revival is not so intense; but apart from interfering conditions, it is generally present in some degree. Poets often produce their best effects by accumulating references to objects round which pleasing associations cling. Tennyson's Brook is a good example.

I wind about, and in and out,

With here a blossom sailing, And here and there a lusty trout,

And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake

Upon me, as I travel With many a silvery waterbreak

Above the golden gravel.

In this and similar poems, a number of objects pleasantly toned by the cumulative effect of past experiences are referred to in succession, and the total result is extremely agreeable.

A very important source of ideal pleasures and pains lies in the reminiscent revival of past activities in which we have been triumphant or defeated. The greater the difficulties overcome, the greater in general is the pleasure of reminiscence. Where we have been successful after a struggle, the pleasure of ideal revival is often much more unmixed than the pleasure of the original experience. In recalling past obstacles and difficulties, we have always the consciousness that they have been overcome, and this reduces to a minimum the disagreeableness of the original struggle. We are not bound to dwell on the unpleasant parts of the experience at more length or in more detail than is required to enhance the pleasures of success. Even where we have been defeated, reminiscence is often more pleasing than displeasing. The reason is that the mere lapse of time has raised us to a point of view from which we can regard past success or failure as a matter of indifference. This in itself is a kind of victory. If the reminiscence of our past struggles continues on any ground to be interesting, it gives us pleasure rather than pain.* Besides this we can always skip more or less lightly over occurrences which would be disagreeable even in their ideal revival.

* Of course this is not the case when the consequences of past defeat continue to affect unfavourably our present position.

All that we have said about revival of feeling-tone must be understood with one important qualification. It is necessary to distinguish between the attitude of imagination and the attitude of belief. The mere ideal representation of an object may in itself give pleasure or pain; but this must not be confused with the pleasure or pain arising from our belief in the existence or nonexistence of the object under given conditions. Doubtless the pleasure of ideal revival is at its maximum when it takes the form of the pleasure of anticipation. A person living in a crowded city may take pleasure in ideally recalling trees and woods and mountains as a mere play of imagination. But a new source of intenser pleasure arises when he finds that he can take a holiday and actually visit the scenery of Scotland or Switzerland. The reverse occurs when his mind is disagreeably disturbed by the thought that these things are beyond his reach. "A busy man reads a novel at the close of the day, and finds himself led off by a reference to angling or tropical scenery to picture himself with his rods packed en route for Scotland, or booked by the next steamer for the fairyland of the West Indies. Presently, while the ideas of Jamaica or fishing are at least as vividly imagined as before, the fancied preparations receive a rude shock as the thought of his work recurs,"* The "rude shock" is due to the direction of attention to the actual existence or nonexistence of what has been previously merely imagined. This brings with it a desire for the actual experiences themselves. The belief that they are out of reach thwarts this desire and produces pain which displaces, often though not always completely, the pleasures of imagination. In general, the thought of a pleasing object which is recognised as beyond our reach gives pain rather than pleasure when there is a desire for its actual possession. To enjoy the pleasure of ideal revival in the case of unattainable objects, we must be able to adopt the attitude of imagination or makebelieve, and this is very often impossible.

* Ward's article "Psychology," Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth edition, xx., p. 74.