I say, then, that the
happiness of the soul consists in the exercise of the affections; not in
sensual pleasures, not in activity, not in excitement, not in self esteem, not
in the consciousness of power, not in knowledge; in none of these things lies
our happiness, but in our affections being elicited, employed, supplied. As
hunger and thirst, as taste, sound, and smell, are the channels through which
this bodily frame receives pleasure, so the affections are the instruments by
which the soul has pleasure. When they are exercised duly, it is happy; when
they are undeveloped, restrained, or thwarted, it is not happy. This is our
real and true bliss, not to know, or to affect, or to pursue; but to love, to
hope, to joy, to admire, to revere, to adore. Our real and true bliss lies in
the possession of those objects on which our hearts may rest and be satisfied.
--Blessed John Henry Newman, “The Thought of God, the
Stay of the Soul”, Parochial and Plain
Sermons, Vol. 5
