ABSTRACT
Life displays itself as a continual deception, in matters small as well as great. Happiness therefore always lies in the future, or even in the past, and the present may be compared to a small dark cloud that the wind drives over a sunny plain: before and behind it all is clear, it alone always casts a shadow. The mode in which this nullity of all objects of will make itself known and comprehensible to the intellect, rooted in individuals, is in the first instance time. People feel the absence of enjoyments and pleasures with pain, as soon as they cease; but when pains cease, even after a long presence, their absence is not directly felt, but they are rather at most intentionally recollected by means of reflection. For human existence, far from bearing the character of a gift has altogether that of a contracted debt.
