GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 



129 



prophets, the saints, and the most devout, which may be 

 compared to a prospect in the clearest weather. Hence, 

 when some one observed to the apostle of God, that Jesus 

 (upon whom be peace ! ) walked upon the waters, he re- 

 plied, that " if his faith had been greater, he would have 

 walked in the air." 



The view that can be taken by the heart of man, em- 

 braces all things that lie in the world of perception and 

 understanding. Its sphere of action and exercise is the 

 whole world. The ascent of man from the rank of beasts 

 to that of angels, is an ascent where he is always exposed 

 to danger and to destruction. He may, with the guidance 

 of the divine guide, mount up to the highest heaven, or 

 may descend through the deceits of Satan to the lowest 

 hell. And the prophet has warned us of this danger in 

 these words : " We have proposed to the heavens, to the 

 earth and to the mountains to accept the deposit of the 

 faith : they trembled to receive it. Man accepted the 

 charge, but he became stupid and a wanderer in darkness." 1 



Know, farther, that inanimate objects are the lowest in 

 rank in the quantity and degree of happiness they obtain, 

 and it is a happiness which knows no change. The place 

 of beasts is in the lowest abyss and there is no path by 

 which they can ascend out of it. The mansion of the 

 angels is in the highest heavens where they ever continue 

 in the same condition, there is neither abasement or as- 

 cent from their place. And God also says in his eternal 

 word, " And what have we except for each one a certain 

 and appointed habitation." 2 The position of man is be- 

 tween the rank of angels, and that of animals, because he 

 partakes of the qualities of both. No other rank except 

 man accepted the deposit of the true faith, and indeed no 



1 S. 37 : 72. 



2 S. 38 : 164. 

 Trans. viii.~\ 



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