Nevertheless (I offer my last dogma defiantly) it is not native to man to be so.

Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.

Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul.

Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labour by which all things live.

Yet, according to the apparent estate of man as seen by the pagan or the agnostic, this primary need of human nature can never be fulfilled.