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Consequently all pleasures may be reduced to three classes, according as they are referred to things present, past, or future. The pleasures of the present are the immediate pleasures of direct sensation; those of the past are the ‘pleasures of memory’, the pleasures that accompany, or are revived by, association, in the way of recollection, of past facts; and those of the future are derived by a similar association from the anticipation of future pleasure. ἡδεῖα δ᾽ ἐστὶ τοῦ μὲν πάροντος ἐνέργεια, τοῦ δὲ μέλλοντος ἐλπίς, τοῦ δὲ γεγενημένου μνήμη: ἥδιστον δὲ τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν [Eth. N. IX 7, 1168 a 13]. Of memory, Ov. Heroid. XVIII 55, (Hero to Leander) Nox erat incipiens; namque est meminisse voluptas; cum foribus patriis egrediebar amans.

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