"Enjoyment arises from activity of mind; both are ever united. There is indeed also an enjoyment which streams in upon us as a pure gift of Heaven. Such, however, we should not seek after; it is to be regretted when an anxious longing for this arises. But the great enjoyment, the great happiness, that which cannot be torn from us by any power, lies in the past and in the thought that happiness is indeed a great and precious good, but yet the improvement of the soul by joys and griefs, the development of noble feelings, is the true and only end of existence; whereas everything else in the world is ever changing, and in its nature transient. According to this view, life in the past sinks not into a stupid brooding over past pleasures or sorrows that have been felt, but is united closely with the mental activity which employs itself on the present."