LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 125 



apprises us every time our activity is in full ex- 

 pansion; this sign is joy. I say joy; I do not 

 say pleasure. Pleasure, in point of fact, is no 

 more than an instrument contrived by Nature to 

 obtain from the individual the preservation and 

 the propagation of life ; it gives us no information 

 concerning the direction in which life is flung 

 forward. True joy, on the contrary, is always 

 an emphatic signal of the triumph of life. Now, 

 if we follow this new line of facts, we find that 

 wherever joy is, creation has been, and that the 

 richer the creation the deeper the joy. The 

 mother looking upon her child is joyous because 

 she has the consciousness of having created it, 

 physically and morally. A man who succeeds in 

 his enterprise for example, a captain of indus- 

 try whose business is prospering is he joyous 

 solely on account of the money he is winning and 

 the notoriety he has acquired? Doubtless these 

 elements count for much in the satisfaction he 

 feels; but they bring him pleasures rather than 

 joy, and whatever true joy he tastes belongs 

 essentially to the consciousness he has of having 

 established an enterprise which marches on, of 

 having created something that goes ahead. Con- 

 sider exceptional joys like those of the great 

 artist who has produced a masterpiece, of the 

 scientific man who has made a discovery or inven- 

 tion. We sometimes say they have worked for 

 glory and derive their greatest satisfaction from 

 the applause of mankind. Profound mistake ! 



