GhazzaWs Alchemy of Happiness. 137 



moral character. And know, O beloved, that the reason 

 why man must love beauty of form in his own species, and 

 has an inclination to admire external beauty, is that God 

 created the spirits of men out of a drop of his own light, 

 as he says. u when I have breathed my spirit into him." 1 

 And as the spirit has thus been created out of the light of 

 the Lord God, it is so essentially beautiful, that if man 

 were capable of seeing the degree of its beauty, he would 

 become bereft of reason and perhaps would perish from 

 the effects of the impression. 



This also should be known, that beauty of form belongs 

 to the spirit, and not to the body. It is a proof that there 

 is nothing agreeable in the body by itself, that when the 

 spirit is separated from the body by death, no one has any 

 inclination afterwards to look upon the face of the dead, 

 but on the contrary his feelings repel him and he turns 

 away from it. And however near a friend or rela- 

 tive the person may be, we have no disposition to approach 

 his side again. The body of man is created*of opaque 

 earth, and the spirit by entering into the body is entirely 

 veiled, so that it can neither be seen or known. 



It is clear then that the beauty of form possessed by 

 man and the beauty of many other things arise from their 

 being created from the light of the Lord. Consider then, as 

 far as human reason cau reach, if such beauty and elegance 

 exist in spirits formed out of one drop of the light of the 

 blessed God, what must be the beauty and splendor 

 of the Lord God himself. Since then the beauty of every 

 beloved object is derived from his light, and that the 

 beauty of every thing that is beautiful is from him, it fol- 

 lows that he who is wise, ought not to permit himself to 

 be deceived by the soul which passes away, and to be at- 

 tracted to that beauty which is fleeting, but that he should 



1 S. 15 : 29. 

 Trans. viii.~\ 



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