DR. PLEASURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19032, 9 June 1924, Page 10

DR. PLEASURE

Many persons are ill, mentally and physically, because they are suspicious of pleasure. The hardy races hold pain in high esteem as a personal discipline, and inducing pain in oneself has even been inculcated as an act of virtue (writes W. M. Gallichan in a London paper). We speake of pain as “holy.” But pleasure may be no less holy than pain. Many devout men and women have realised that pleasure is essential for moral self-development and conduct. The physical reaction of pleasure makes the body resistant to disease, aids in recovery from sickness, tends to the lengthening of life, and prevents morbid manifestations in old age. Some people appear to believe that Nature has evolved the complicated nervous system as an instrument for producing pain or discomfort. A pleasant surprise, such as receiving cheering news, immediately excites the heart to vigorous action. It is not eariy to define pleasure in a general sense. The pleasure that the Spartan winter bathers in the Serpentine enjoy suggests pain to less robust persons. Fishing may be a man’s passion, but his friend may regard that recreation as a form of acute boredom. Tho cheerfulness attained through wholesome indulgence ensures both an active circulation and sound digestion. It has been shown experimentally by numerous physiologists that pleasurable emotion has a beneficent chemical influence upon the secretion of digestive fluids. There is equally trustworthy evidence that the neglect of the stimulus of pleasure impairs the function of the nervous organisation and dulls the mental perceptions. A congenial occupation for a livelihood is perhaps the greatest source of pleasure. But if we are forced by circumstances into unpleasant work we must find in play of a suitable nature the self-expression that we crave.