delights more in the expectation of that which it has not yet, than
in the full possession of all it has ever desired. He in whom
happiness dwells is amazed at the heart that finds aliment only in
fear or in hope, and that cannot be nourished on what it possesses,
though it possess all it ever desired.

We often see men who are strong and morally prudent whom happiness
yet overcomes. Not finding therein all they sought, they do not
defend it, or cling to it, with the energy needful in life. We must
have already acquired some not inconsiderable wisdom to be
undismayed at perceiving that happiness too has its sorrow, and to
be not induced by this sorrow to think that ours cannot be the
veritable happiness. The most precious gift that happiness brings is
the knowledge that springs up within us that it is not a thing of
mere ecstasy, but a thing that bids us reflect. It becomes far less
rare, far less inaccessible, from the moment we know that its
greatest achievement is to give to the soul that is able to prize it
an increase of consciousness, which the soul could elsewhere never
have found. To know what happiness means is of far more importance
to the soul of man than to enjoy it. To be able long to love
happiness great wisdom needs must be ours; but a wisdom still
greater for us to perceive, as we lie in the bosom of cloudless joy,
that the fixed and stable part of that joy is found in the force
which, deep down in our consciousness, could render us happy still
though misfortune wrapped us around. Do not believe you are happy
till you have been led by your happiness up to the heights whence
itself disappears from your gaze, but leaving you still, unimpaired,
the desire to live.

58. There are some profound thinkers, such as Pascal, Schopenhauer,