"In South Africa I remember an experience which I had not known since my childhood: moments, even hours, of intense exhilaration, when one seemed to be a happy part of a friendly universe.

I have had the same experience much later in life, and they came usually in the early morning or at sunset. I seemed to acquire a wonderful clearness of mind and to find harmony in discords and unity in diversity, but to find these things not as conclusions of thought, but in a sudden revelation, as in a poetry or music. For a few moments beauty peeped from the most unlikely wrappings and everything had a secret purpose or joy. It was the mood for poetry had I been anything of a poet. Looking back I especially remember a time that stands out. I rose after a supperless night and I bathed in one of the icy cold pools, and then basked in the early sunshine while breakfast was cooking. The water made a pleasant music, and near by was a covert of willows filled with singing birds. Then and there came on me and hour of revelation, when, though savagely hungry, I forgot about breakfast. Scents, sights, and sounds blended into a harmony so perfect that it transcended human expression, even human thought. It was like a glimpse of the peace of eternity.

There are no more comfortable words in the language than Peace and Joy. Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown. But Joy is a positive thing; in Joy one does not only feel secure, but something goes out from oneself to the universe, a warm, possessive effluence of love. There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness. It was Happiness that I knew in those rare moments. The world was a place of inexhaustible beauty, but still more it was the husk of something infinite, ineffable, and immortal, in very truth the garment of God." John Buchan.