Note 18 — PART II.

The relation which, according to Plato, subsists between knowledge and pure pleasure, seems to be in general of the following nature.—in the gradual growth of the human consciousness, pleasure is necessarily combined with cognition,—so however, as that, at one time pleasure, at another cognition, is the dominant and determining element. In the former case, the pleasure is impure and immoderate while in the latter a pure pleasure arises, measured by the truth of Ideas. To avoid the former and pursue the latter, ought, therefore, to be the object of a truly intellectual life.—Ritter, ii. p. 396.