Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 81 



Know, however, that there is an immense distance and 

 wide interval between perceiving the beauty of the Lord, 

 and understanding that which constitutes its soul, marrow 

 and essence. O seeker of the divine mysteries, those im- 

 potent astrologers and physicists, who, shut out from the 

 knowledge of God, ascribe changes and events to the 

 stars and to nature, resemble an ant, that seeing a pen 

 making marks upon paper, should be overjoyed and cry 

 out, " I have found out the secret of the effect. It is the 

 pen that causes the marks.'' This class of men in another 

 point resembles the natural man, who ascribes the influ- 

 ences in nature to heat and cold, water and earth : so a 

 second ant looking on with attention, sees that the pen 

 does not move of itself, but rather by the will of the hand : 

 and he turns and says to the first ant, " You were mistaken ; 

 you did not perceive the real nature of the thing : you 

 thought the marks and movements were caused by the pen. 

 It is not so ; the whole influence proceeds from the fingers 

 and the pen is subject to the fingers." Beloved, this ant 

 resembles the astrologer, who ascribes effects to the con- 

 stellations. He does not know that he also is mistaken, 

 and that the stars and the constellations are subject to the 

 angels, and that the angels can do nothing without the 

 command of God. 



In the same manner as there is falsity, in the way in 

 which the material world is regarded by the natural man 

 and the astrologer, there is also a diversity of views among 

 those who survey the spiritual world. There are some 

 who, just as they are upon the point of entering upon the 

 vision of the spiritual world, seeing that they discover no- 

 thing, descend back to their old sphere. There is also a 

 difference of view between those who do succeed in reach- 

 ing the spiritual or invisible world by meditation, for some 

 have an immense amount of light veiled from them. Every 



Trans, viii.'] 11 



