"Pleasure," in ordinary parlance, means an immediate and transitory
form of happiness and usually a happiness of the body rather than
of the emotions and the mind. Hence the "swine". A sensual enjoyment
is a "pleasure"; union with God would not be called a pleasure, but
happiness. An old definition of man's true object is: "To know God, and
to enjoy Him for ever." There happiness is clearly made the true end
of man. The assailant changes the "greatest happiness of the greatest
number" into the "pleasure of the individual," and having created this
man of straw, he triumphantly knocks it down.
Does not virtue lead to happiness? Is it not a condition of happiness?
How does the Christian define virtue? It is obedience to the Will of
God. But he only obeys that Will as "revealed" so far as it agrees with
Utility. He no longer slays the heretic, and he suffers the witch to
live. He does not give his cloak to the thief who has stolen his coat,
but he hands over the thief to the policeman. Moreover, as Herbert
Spencer pointed out, he follows virtue as leading to heaven; if right
conduct led him to everlasting torture, would he still pursue it? Or
would he revise his idea of right conduct? The martyr dies for the truth
he sees, because it is easier _to him_ to die than to betray truth.
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