Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 



73 



from the former, may be accomplished by two methods. 

 The first method is most deep and profound. The most ex- 

 alted in wisdom and the most penetrating among men are 

 far from understanding it, even when they apply themselves 

 to it, both with science, practice and a pure life. How then 

 should those ignorant persons understand it, who are 

 utterly destitute of a knowledge of external things ! Let 

 us, therefore, pass to the second method and explain that : 

 for he who possesses a discriminating mind, even if he 

 were blind, is capable of understanding it. 



Know, therefore, that man from his own existence knows 

 the existence of a Creator; from his own attributes, he knows 

 the attributes of his maker ; from the control which he has 

 over his own kingdom, he knows the control that God exer- 

 cises over all the world. The reason of this is, that when a 

 man looks at himself, beginning at the time when there was 

 no trace or notion of his existence, and contemplates his cre- 

 ation with attention, he sees that he had his origin from a drop 

 of water. He had neither mind or understanding : and nei- 

 ther fat, flesh nor bones. Afterwards by divine operation 

 and sovereign power, most strange and wonderful internal 

 changes took place, and strong organs, passions, affections, 

 and agreeable qualities rose up all adorned with beauty. 

 When man comes to look upon his organs and members, 

 whether upon the external, as the hand, the foot, the eye, 

 the tongue and the mouth, or upon the internal organs, as 

 the liver, the stomach and the spleen, he sees that each is 

 the result of a special wisdom, that each one has been 

 created for some peculiar use, and that each one is in its 

 place and perfect. After a man has observed these things, 

 he knows that the Creator has power to do what he 

 pleases with all things, that his knowledge includes and 

 embraces in perfection whatever is to be known of crea- 



Trans. viii."\ 10 



