st."

"I don't believe in a religion that calls suffering better than
happiness; but I know you do."

"No, I don't," she said, "and God does not; and people who talk as if He
did not want us to seek happiness--even our own happiness--are making to
themselves a graven image. I will tell you how I think about it, because
I have been alone a great deal and been always very much afraid, and
that has made me think a great deal, and you have been very kind, for
you risked your life for my poor people, and now you would risk
something more than that to help me. Will you listen while I try to tell
you?"

Caius signified his assent. He was losing all his hope. He was thinking
that when she had done talking he would go and get ready to do murder;
but he listened.

"You see," she began, "the greatest happiness is love. Love is greedy to
get as well as to give. It is all nonsense talking about love that gives
and asks for no return. We only put up with that when we cannot get the
other, and why? Why should we think it the grandest thing to give what
we would scorn to take? You, for instance--you would rather have a
person you loved do nothing for you, yet enjoy you, always demanding
your affection and presence, than that he or she should be endlessly
generous, and indifferent to what you give in return."

"Yes." He blushed as he said it.

"Well then, it is cant to speak as if the love that asks for no return
is the noblest. Now listen. I have something very solemn to say, because
it is only by the greatest things that we learn what the little ought to
be. When God came to earth to live for awhile, it was for the sake of
His happiness and ours; He loved us in the way that I have been saying;
He was not content only to bless us, He wanted us to enjoy Him. He
wanted that happiness from us; and He wanted us to expect it from Him
and from each other; and if we had answered, all would have been like
the first marriage feast, where they had the very best wine, and such
lots of it. But, you see, we couldn't answer; we had no souls. We were
just like the men on Cloud Island who laughed at you when you wanted
them to build a hospital. The little self or soul that we had was of
that sort that we couldn't even love each other very much with it, and
not Him at all. So there was only one way, and that was for us to grow
out of these stupid little souls, and get good big ones, that can enjoy
God, and enjoy each other, and enjoy everything