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THE PREPARATORY RENUNCIATION. TOI
less to him. No man can enjoy a meal with the same gusto of pleasure as a dog or a wolf, but the pleasures, which a man gets from intellectual experiences and achievements, the dog can never enjoy. Pleasure at first is in association with the lower senses ; but as soon as an animal reaches a higher plane of existence, the lower kind of pleasures becomes less intense to it. In human society, the nearer the man is to the animal, the stronger is his pleasure in the senses ; and the higher and the more cultured the man is, the greater is his pleasure in intellectual and such other finer pursuits. So, when a man gets even higher than the plane of the intellect, higher than that of mere thought, when he gets to the plane of spirituality and of divine inspiration, he finds therein a state of bliss, compared to which all the pleasures of the senses, or even of the intellect, become as nothing. When the moon shines brightly all the stars become dim, and when the sun
