GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

ETHICAL THEORY SURVEYED 399
pleasure. "But," says the hedonist, "appearances are
deceptive. To begin with, most martyrs have been men
endowed with a strong histrionic sense, and have accord*
ingly derived the greatest possible pleasure from occupying
the centre of the stage. Now a martyr is at least assured
of the limelight, even if the limelight is hot as well as
bright Again, martyrs are notoriously men of iron determination
or, as I should prefer to put it, of pigheaded
obstinacy. All self-willed men like getting their own way;
in fact, they like it so much that they insist on it, even if,
in the course of doing so, they have to put up with the
pain of being burned. When the pain actually begins,
they probably realize their mistake; realize, that is to say,
that they have made a mistake as to what will give them
the greatest pleasure in the long run. But by that time it
is too late to rectify the mistake.
"More important, perhaps, is the consideration that most
martyrs have been men of strong religious convictions
who believed that they would be eternally damned, if
they proved false to their religious beliefs and bowed the
knee to Rome or to Satan or to Baal, or to whomever or
whatever happened at the time to be regarded as the
symbol of wickedness and error. Consequently, the choice,
as it appeared to them, was a choice between being roasted
for fifteen minutes in an earthly fire and being roasted
for eternity in an infernal one. To opt for the former was,
therefore, merely common prudence. Finally, if these
reflections be regarded as involving a too cynical view of
human nature, I will put my case in the most straightforward
manner possible by pointing out to you that the
martyr, a steadfast and conscientious man, suffers more
from betraying his most cherished convictions than from
the pain of the fire; so at least he thinks, for it is in the
nature of such men to rate spiritual pain as more grievous
thah bodily. Therefore, in opting for the stake, he is
aiming at his own greatest pleasure or, what from my
point of view amounts to the same thing, at avoiding his
"
own greatest pain. On such lines the conduct of the