GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



127 



The necessities of the constitution of the spirit are to 

 know God and to contemplate his beauty and excellence. 

 But if stupidity and blindness, which are opposed to this 

 tendency of the spirit, become predominant, the soul will 

 be vexed and tormented, and there will be no end to the 

 torment. If it were not that the body is subject to mala- 

 dies in the world, the fact of this blindness and stupidity 

 would have been visible and apparent to the soul in this 

 world also, and it would also have been the source of im- 

 mense anguish, and tormeut would at no moment have 

 ceased to afflict men. Just as when a person has a severe 

 sore upon the hand or foot, if besides it should be cut with 

 a knife or fire should be put upon it, he would not feel the 

 pain of the knife or the fire, on account of the pain of the 

 sore, so likewise the maladies of the body, such as hunger 

 and thirst, or such maladies as love of possessions and 

 family, combined with the absorbed attention of the senses 

 to these things, prevent the soul from being conscious of 

 its disquiet and distress. But when in death, the torment 

 to which the body was subject is taken away, it will be 

 seen how excruciating is the torment of the soul. And 

 thus also God announces in his holy word: "Ah! if you 

 knew it with infallible assurance. But you will see hell : 

 you will see it with the eyes of certainty." 1 



You should know, inquirer, that the many arguments 

 we have adduced to prove that spiritual torment is more 

 severe than material torment, and the many illustrations 

 of it that we have developed, are understood by intelligent 

 and discerning minds, but the mass of the people under- 

 stand nothing about them. Suppose, for example, that the 

 sou of a prince has begun to go to school, and he is ad- 

 monished that if he do not study, his father will not give 

 him the principality. The boy does not understand the 



'S. 102: 5, 6,7. 



