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But as a matter of
fact the latter sort of pleasures accompany a process towards perfection, so that
accidentally they are good.)
[5]
(2) Another reason is that bodily pleasures are sought for, just
because of their intensity, by people who are incapable of enjoying others (for
instance, some deliberately take steps to make themselves thirsty) : not that
there is any objection to this if the pleasures are innocuous, but it is bad if they are
productive of harmful results. The fact is that some men have no other sources of
enjoyment; and also many are so constituted that a neutral state of feeling is to them
positively painful. (This is because a state of strain is the normal condition of
an animal organism, as physiology testifies; it tells us that sight and hearing are in
fact painful, but we have got used to them in course of time—such is the
theory.)
[6]
Similarly the young are in a condition
resembling intoxication, because they are growing, and youth is pleasant in itself; but
persons of an excitable nature need a restorative perpetually, because their temperament
keeps their bodies in a constant state of irritation, and their appetites are continually
active; and any pleasure, if strong, drives out pain, not only the opposite pleasure. This
is why excitable men become profligate and vicious.
[7]
Pleasures unaccompanied by pain, on the other hand—and these are those derived
from things naturally and not accidentally pleasant—do not admit of excess. By
things accidentally pleasant I mean things taken as restoratives; really their restorative
effect is produced by the operation1 of that part of the system which has remained sound,
and hence the remedy itself is thought to be pleasant.
1 It is this which is really pleasant: see 12.2.