C. E. Montague on working out a spice of ultimate good

I blogged about C. E. Montague last spring. Here's a passage from one of his books:

People whose work is the making of calculations or the manipulation of thoughts have been known to find a curiously restful pleasure in chopping firewood or painting tool-sheds till their backs ache. It soothes them with a flattering sense of getting something useful done straight off. So much of their "real" work is a taking of some minute or indirect means to some end remote, dimly and doubtfully visible, possibly — for the dread thought will intrude — not worth attaining. The pile of chopped wood is at least a spice of the ultimate good: visible, palpable, it is success. [pp.6-7] - C. E. Montague (Disenchantment, 1922)