_Far_. Yes, to be sure. Thou shouldest know that there are good devils as well as good men. _Mal_. And you must know that I will hang you by the tail to one of these beams if you do not instantly obey me without more words. _Far_. It were easier for you to kill me, than for me to satisfy your demands. _Mal_. Then return with my malediction, and let Beelzebub come himself. _Far_. Beelzebub and the whole army of hell would be equally powerless to render you or any of your race happy. _Mal_. Not even for a single moment? _Far_. As impossible for a moment, half a moment, or the thousandth part of a moment, as for a lifetime. _Mal_. Well, since you cannot make me happy in any way, at least free me from unhappiness. _Far_. On condition that you no longer love yourself above everything else. _Mal_. I shall only cease doing that when I die. _Far_. But as long as you live you will be unable to do it. Your nature would tolerate anything rather than that. _Mal_. So it is. _Far_. Consequently, loving yourself above everything, you desire your own happiness more than anything. But because this is unattainable, you must necessarily be unhappy. _Mal_. Even when engaged in pleasure; since no gratification can make me happy, or satisfy me. _Far_. Truly none. _Mal_. And because pleasure cannot satisfy my soul's innate desire for happiness, it is not true pleasure, and during its continuance I shall still be unhappy. _Far_. As you say: because in men and other living beings, the deprivation of happiness, even though pain and misfortune be wanting, implies express unhappiness. This, too, during the continuance of so-called pleasures. _Mal_. So that from birth to death our unhappiness never ceases for an instant. _Far_. Yes, it ceases whenever you sleep dreamlessly, or when, from one cause or another, you are deprived of your senses. _Mal_. But never, so long as we are sensible that we live. _Far_. Never. _Mal_. So that in fact it were better not to live than to live. _Far_. If the absence of unhappiness be better than unhappiness itself. _Mal_. Then? _Far_. Then if you would like to give me your soul before its time, I am ready to carry it away with me. _DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATURE AND A SOUL._ _Nature_. Go, my beloved child. You shall be regarded as my favoured one for very many centuries. Live: be great and unhappy. _Soul_. What evil have I done before beginning to live, that you condemn me to this misery? _Nature_. What misery, my child? _Soul_. Do you not ordain that I am to be unhappy? _Nature_. Yes; but only so far as to enable you to be great, which you cannot become without unhappiness. Besides, you are destined to animate a human body, and all men are of necessity unhappy from their birth. _Soul_. It were more reasonable that you made happiness a necessity; or this being impossible, it were better not to bring men into the world.