Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/192

 supply of such needs was the measure of all true finite happiness, I now proceed to illustrate this truth by an appeal to the experience of all who hear me.

Happiness, in its general sense, is the fulfillment of desire. And the more complete is the fulfillment of every desire, the more complete is the happiness; and happiness can not be perfect until every desire is fulfilled. If in fulfilling the desire of one department of our being we neglect the needs and consequent demands of another, we may obtain temporary gratification, but it does not answer the full demand of our being so as to confer happiness. On the contrary, while we gratify a lust, we resist a true demand, and purchase gratification by disease and suffering.

The individual, ignorant or unmindful of the true demands of his being, and intent upon self-gratification, must forever fail of obtaining happiness, because in his lustful pursuit he does not heed the real demands of his entire being, and therefore he does not minister to their needs; and hence can not obtain ease and satisfaction. All pleasure-seekers can testify as they have testified, that their pleasures are more in anticipation than participation. Their happiness is in the future, and seldom if ever in the present. The time never comes when they find every desire gratified, and consequently they are never quite contented, therefore never quite happy. The very desire after happiness is that which defeats it. The finite belongs to the present; the past is his schoolmaster, teaching him in the present how to receive the future. His duties and needs are of to-day, and those which pertain to the morrow will come on the morrow, not before. "Suffi