THE PLEASURES OF THE FLESH, and the PLEASURES OF THE MIND
When a hungry man is seated before an appetizing meal, his mouth waters in anticipation and he experiences the joys of anticipated satisfaction.
Every mouthful lingers on his palate with a delicious sensation and when his hunger is satisfied, a feeling of intense comfort steals over him. He is at peace with the world, and forgives his enemies. Any favor you ask, if within his power to grant, will not be refused.
It is the same with a thirsty man. A delicious invigorating drink—and there is none preferable to water—gurgles down his parched throat and he smacks his lips with enjoyment.
All these matters together with other pleasurable sensations are purely physical and passing. They must be renewed to be experienced, and when the physical nature is out of order or does not respond, we are in a very bad condition if we have nothing else to fall back upon.
Physical enjoyments are all sensual. The nerves thrill with excitement and the world looks good to us and mighty pleasant. A few flies to pester us are mere details and not to be considered.
But we have another being separate and apart from the physical body; something much finer and more elevated. A being that is of a higher order of appreciation and more enduring.
Every man knows without being told, that is, he knows from his own feelings and sensations, that he has a spiritual nature, a mental body, a mind.
Now, this mental body, this mind, is far above the physical, and its pleasures and sensations, and its delights are as far above the physical sensations as the spirit or mind is above the flesh.
Let us follow up this idea:
We said that a hungry man enjoys eating. This is true, but all hungry men do not eat alike. Some men bolt their food to appease hunger, and swill their drink to quench thirst. But others enjoy their food and while satisfying hunger and thirst, gratify their taste and enjoy certain foods more than others. These others have what is called “educated” appetites, which is a mental acquisition above the purely animal sensation of satisfying hunger or thirst. It is an art to be cultivated.
This is the point sought to be reached—education and learning.
If the pleasures of the flesh are so enjoyable, then the pleasures of the mind are still more enjoyable, because the mind is more appreciative besides more enduring.
The food of the mind, the drink of the mind, means all the other pleasures of the flesh resolved into the spiritual body through education and learning, and the more education, the more learning, the higher the enjoyment.
A great lawyer once said: “The pleasure of learning may be likened to a bucket in a deep well of clear, cool water. It is easy to move the bucket about if it is kept beneath the water, but when we attempt to raise it above the surface, then comes a tug and a hard pull.” Whence he derived the conclusion that the deeper we plunge into the clear, cool depths of education and learning the more pleasure there is and the easier it is to remain there.
One of our poets says:
In these modern days every man must have some sort of an education, preferably that for the occupation or profession which he selects for his life work.
If he goes in for a commercial business, then he must learn all about the rules and laws governing his business or the branch of it he aspires to learn. He must know all about the nature of the goods he purposes to sell; the markets; the prices; the demand; the production; the consumption, and other matters connected with the business.
If he does not learn these things he will fail in business, and if he does not learn some of them he can not get a job in any business house.
The rule is the same in every trade and profession. The modern man is exacting. He demands the best service, because his customers or clients demand better goods, better qualities, and better treatment.
The time has gone by when a tradesman, for instance, could offer goods to his customer with a “take it or leave it” air. Competition is too keen to permit that, and prices are too liable to be cut to enable him to say, “That’s my price,” for there are others who will say, “I will knock off ten per cent.”
An education that does not fit in with a man’s occupation is a relaxation, and aids him to rise in his business and profession, so that nothing is lost by keeping up with the times, but there is everything to be gained. This is refinement and a valuable asset. Everything that can be learned is worth something sometime.
How to tell a fresh egg from a stale one is a matter of education, but to give the reason why a stale egg is not so good as a fresh one is a matter of learning.
You can distinguish one man from another by his facial differences. That is education, but when you can tell a good man from a bad one by a study of his characteristics, that is learning.
To learn how to do things is education, but to learn the nature of the things you make or the reasons why involves learning.
The housewife in making bread sets the loaves of dough in a warm place so that they will rise. This is education, and her education tells her that if she puts the dough in a cold place the bread will not rise. If she knew that the yeast plant requires heat to grow, and is easily killed by cold, she is learned.
If you eat a cucumber or any green fruit in the hot summer time you are liable to get the colic. You are educated up to that by experience, perhaps. But if you know that nature always gives you a pain when you eat something indigestible, as a warning to get rid of it, or not to do so any more, you will be learned indeed, if you take a cathartic instead of a pain killer to stop the pain or warning nature gives you.
We can not live among our fellow men without an education of some kind, adaptable
First—to our life work whatever it may be.
Second—suitable and proper to the people with whom we associate or are placed in contact in our daily round of business and pleasure.
We can live and get along through life without any learning, but learning adds to education and enables us to apply what we learn. Besides that, it puts us in a position to rise higher, the more learned we become.
It is not intended, by these remarks, to advise any one to learn everything there is to be learned, for the very good reason there are too many things in these modern times for one man’s brain to hold. But it may be taken as a truth, that a man should be learned along the line of his trade, business, or profession, with a few enjoyments for good measure.
It is easy to learn, in fact one thing brings another. Like some food we eat—one mouthful makes us hungry for another. Our modern system is so linked and connected together, that every thing that may or can be learned is a link in the great entire chain. You begin pulling at the educational chain and find that you can not stop. You feel impelled to keep on taking up link after link, until before you are aware of it, you have mastered some definite branch of learning through the force of education.
One thing to be noted is, what one man knows another man can find out. The only way, therefore, is to keep ahead of him and learn things he can not find out, or will not find out until too long afterward to be of any disadvantage to you.