Chapter 338
What, indeed, was the most perfect happiness?
“Ah, of course I know.”
“Perfect happiness” could not exist anywhere. The principles of the world were profoundly subtle; when one thing reached an extreme, its opposite was bound to become empty.
“But I am not trying to tell such a trite story right now. Humanity’s greatest blessing and greatest disaster lie in its delicate intelligence, because we can imagine so many things.”
Then let us suppose. What is the greatest happiness for me? What do humans live for? Could living within a utopia with no end in sight not be called the ultimate happiness?
And yet, why must humans discover deprivation even within it?
“A great many people offered me gold, silver, and treasure. They built me a house of ancient gold, bathed me in fairy tears, and made my bedding from silk woven with the leaves of the World Tree.”
The other gifts George had received were endless. He had been given everything the human imagination could conceive. George did not deny their rarity or immense value.
“But they did not make me feel particularly good. Why might that have been…?”
Was that not terribly strange? George liked things that glittered. He liked beautiful things as well. Acquiring something rare brought him joy, and receiving something precious made his heart race. But that was all.
“That is…