ob, and even as your spirit is filled with the love of her,
your gladness is half-pain and there comes to you a joy that hurts.

To look upon the most exalted forms of beauty, such as a sunset at sea,
the coming of a storm on the prairie, the shadowy silence of the desert,
or the sublime majesty of the mountains, begets a sense of sadness, an
increasing loneliness.

It is not enough to say that man encroaches on man so that we are really
deprived of our freedom, that civilization is caused by a bacillus, and
that from a natural condition we have gotten into a hurly-burly where
rivalry is rife--all this may be true, but beyond and outside of all
this there is no physical environment in way of plenty which earth can
supply, that will give the tired soul peace. They are the happiest who
have the least; and the fable of the stricken king and the shirtless
beggar contains the germ of truth. The wise hold all earthly ties very
lightly--they are stripping for eternity.

World-weariness is only a desire for a better spiritual condition. There
is more to be written on this subject of world-pain--to exhaust the
theme would require a book. And certain it is that I have no wish to
say the final word on any topic. The gentle reader has certain rights,
and among these is the privilege of summing up the case. But the fact
holds that world-pain is a form of desire. All desires are just, proper
and right; and their gratification is the means by which Nature supplies
us that which we need. Desire not only causes us to seek that which we
need, but is a form of attraction by which the good is brought to us,
just as the ameba creates a swirl in the waters that brings its food
within reach. Every desire in Nature has a fixed, definite purpose in
the Divine Economy, and every desire has its proper gratification. If we
desire the friendship of a certain person, it is because that person has
certain soul-qualities that we do not possess, and which complement our
own. Through desire do we come into possession of our own; by submitting
to its beckonings we add cubits to our stature; and we also give out to
others our own attributes, without becoming poorer, for soul is not
limited.

All Nature is a symbol of spirit, so I believe that somewhere there must
be a proper gratification for this mysterious nostalgia of the soul. The
Eternal Unities require a condition where men and women will live to
love, and not to sorrow; where the tyranny of thin