BOOK II PART III
erable an original. But here I return to what
I have already remarked, that the pleasure of
study conflicts chiefly in the action of the mind,
and the exercise of the genius and understand-
ing in the discovery or comprehension of any
truth. If the importance of the truth be requisite
to compleat the pleasure, it is not on account
of any considerable addition, which of itself it
brings to our enjoyment, but only because it is,
in some measure, requisite to fix our attention.
When we are careless and inattentive, the same
action of the understanding has no effect upon
us, nor is able to convey any of that satisfaction,
which arises from it, when we are in another
disposition.
But beside the action of the mind, which is
the principal foundation of the pleasure, there
is likewise required a degree of success in the