What tended to its survival, it sought; what tended to its
destruction, it shunned. Thus self-preservation was the first law of
life.
While man was still in the merely animal stage, and before reason was
developed in him, the things that were in accordance with his nature
were such as health, strength, good bodily condition, soundness of
all the senses, beauty, swiftness--in short all the qualities that
went to make up richness of physical life and that contributed to the
vital harmony. These were called the first things in accordance with
nature. Their opposites were all contrary to nature, such as
sickness, weakness, mutilation. Under the first things in accordance
with nature came also congenial advantages of soul such as quickness
of intelligence, natural ability, industry, application, memory, and
the like. It was a question whether pleasure was to be included among
the number. Some members of the school evidently though that it might
be, but the orthodox opinion was that pleasure was a sort of
aftergrowth and that the direct pursuit of it was deleterious to the
organism.
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