I have spoken of _material, actual_ possession. But if we look closer
at it we shall see that, save with regard to the things which are
actually consumed, destroyed, disintegrated, changed to something else
in their enjoyment, the notion of ordinary possession is a mere
delusion. It can be got only by a constant obtrusion of a mere idea,
the _idea of self_, and of such unsatisfactory ideas as one's right,
for instance, to exclude others. 'Tis like the tension of a muscle,
this constant keeping the consciousness aware by repeating
"Mine--mine--_mine_ and not _theirs_; not _theirs_, but _mine_." And
this wearisome act of self-assertion leaves little power for
appreciation, for the appreciation which others can have quite
equally, and without which there is no reality at all in ownership.
Hence, the deeper our enjoyment of beauty, the freer shall we become
of the dreadful delusion of exclusive appropriation, despising such
unreal possession in proportion as we have tasted the real one. We
shall know the two kinds of ownership too well apart to let ourselves
be cozened into cumbering our lives with material properties and their
responsibilities. We shall save up our vigour, not for obtaining and
keeping (think of the thousand efforts and cares of ownership, even
the most negative) the things which yield happy impressions, but for
receiving and storing up and making capital of those impressions. We
shall seek to furnish our mind with beautiful thoughts, not our houses
with pretty things.