Leisure is the one thing that all
desire, but they strive for it so blindly that they frustrate one
another's hope. And so at length they have come to lose the end in
the means; are mad enough to set the means before them as in itself
an end."
"We must work to forget our troubles," said his companion simply.
"Why, yes, and those very troubles are the fit reward of our folly.
We have not been content to live in the simple happiness of our
senses. We must be learned and wise, forsooth. We were not content
to enjoy the beauty of the greater and the lesser light. We must
understand whence they come and whither they go--after that, what
they are made of and how much they weigh. We thought for such a long
time that our toil would end in something; that we might become as
gods, knowing good and evil. Now we are at the end of our tether, we
see clearly enough that it has all been worse than vain; how good if
we could unlearn it all, scatter the building of phantasmal
knowledge in which we dwell so uncomfortably! It is too late. The
gods never take back their gifts; we wearied them with our prayers
into granting us this one, and now they sit in the clouds and mock
us."
Ida looked, and kept silent; perhaps scarcely understood.
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