Man cannot love mortal things. He can only love immortal things for an instant." - GKC

Heretics, Ch VII. Omar and the Sacred Vine:

Great joy does, not gather the rosebuds while it may;

its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw.

Great joy has in it the sense of immortality; the very splendour

of youth is the sense that it has all space to stretch its legs in.

In all great comic literature, in "Tristram Shandy"

or "Pickwick", there is this sense of space and incorruptibility;

we feel the characters are deathless people in an endless tale.



It is true enough, of course, that a pungent happiness comes chiefly

in certain passing moments; but it is not true that we should think

of them as passing, or enjoy them simply "for those moments' sake."

To do this is to rationalize the happiness, and therefore to destroy it.

Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalized.

Suppose a man experiences a really splendid moment of pleasure.

I do not mean something connected with a bit of enamel, I mean

something with a violent happiness in it--an almost painful happiness.

A man may have, for instance, a moment of ecstasy in first love,

or a moment of victory in battle. The lover enjoys the moment,

but precisely not for the moment's sake. He enjoys it for the

woman's sake, or his own sake. The warrior enjoys the moment, but not

for the sake of the moment; he enjoys it for the sake of the flag.

The cause which the flag stands for may be foolish and fleeting;

the love may be calf-love, and last a week. But the patriot thinks

of the flag as eternal; the lover thinks of his love as something

that cannot end. These moments are filled with eternity;

these moments are joyful because they do not seem momentary.

Once look at them as moments after Pater's manner, and they become

as cold as Pater and his style. Man cannot love mortal things.

He can only love immortal things for an instant.