It was Mr. Pater who first pointed out how the habit of æsthetic
enjoyment makes the epicurean into an ascetic. He builds as little as
possible on the things of the senses and the moment, knowing how
little, in comparison, we have either in our power. For, even if the
desired object, person, or circumstance comes, how often does it not
come at the wrong hour! In this world, which mankind fits still so
badly, the wish and its fulfilling are rarely in unison, rarely in
harmony, but follow each other, most often, like vibrations of
different instruments, at intervals which can only jar. The _n'est-ce
que cela_, the inability to enjoy, of successful ambition and
favoured, passionate love, is famous; and short of love even and
ambition, we all know the flatness of long-desired pleasures. King
Solomon, who had not been enough of an ascetic, as we all know, and
therefore ended off in cynicism, knew that there is not only satiety
as a result of enjoyment; but a sort of satiety also, an absence of
keenness, an incapacity for caring, due to the deferring of enjoyment.
He doubtless knew, among other items of vanity, that our wishes are
often fulfilled without our even knowing it, so indifferent have we
become through long waiting, or so changed in our wants.