"Right so do they," saith he: "and 'tis a quality of the sea-water, that if a man athirst doth once taste the same, his thirst becometh so great that he drinketh thereof again and again, the thirst worsening with every draught, until at last it drives him mad." "An apt image of the pleasures of this world," answers _Father_. "Ah, how is all nature as God's picture-book, given to help His dull childer over their tasks!" "But, _Father_,"--said I, and stayed. "Well, my maid?" he answers of his kindly fashion. "I cry you mercy, _Father_, if I speak foolishly; but it seems me that pious folk be not alway satisfied. They make as much fume as other folk when things go as they would not have them." "The angels do not so, I reckon," saith _Mynheer_, a-looking up. "We are not angels yet," quoth _Father_, a little drily. "Truth, my maid: and we ought to repent thereof, seeing such practices but too oft cause the enemy to blaspheme, and put stumbling-blocks in the way of weak brethren. Ay, and from what we read in God's Word, it should seem as though all murmuring and repining--not sorrowing, mark thou; but murmuring--went for far heavier sin in His eyes than it doth commonly in ours. We count it a light matter if we grumble when things go awry, and matters do seem as if they were bent on turning forth right as we would not have them. Let us remember, for ourselves, that such displeaseth the Lord. He reckons it unbelief and mistrust. `How long,' saith He unto Moses, `will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me?' Howbeit, as for our neighbours, we need not judge them. And indeed, such matters depend much on men's complexions [Note 1], and some find it a deal easier to control them than other. And after all, _Edith_, there is a sense wherein no man can ever be fully satisfied in this life. We were meant to aspire; and if we were entirely content with present things, then should we grovel. To submit cheerfully is one thing: to be fully gratified, so that no desire is left, is an other. We shall not be that, methinks, till we reach Heaven." "Shall we so, even there?" saith Sir _Robert_. "It hath alway seemed to me that when _Diogenes_ did define his gods as `they that had no wants,' he pointed to a very miserable set of creatures. Is it not human nature that the thing present shall fall short of the thing prospective?" "The _in posse_ is better than the _in esse_?" saith _Father_. "Well, it should seem so, in this dispensation. But how, in the next world, our powers may be extended, and our souls in some degree suffer change, that we can be fully satisfied and yet be alway aspiring--I reckon we cannot now understand. I only gather from Scripture that it shall be thus. You and I know very little, _Robin_, of what shall be in Heaven." "Ah, true,--true!" saith Sir _Robert_.