The happy life does not mean loving what we possess, but possessing what we love.” Possession of the beloved, St. Thomas holds, takes place in an act of cognition, in seeing, in intuition, in contemplation.

Here we must take account of one of St. Thomas’s conceptual distinctions, which at first seems like unnecessary caviling. It is the distinction between “uncreated” and “created” happiness. We have here something which, while not...