Why do hounds more ordinarily lose the scent or strain of their quarry in springtime than at other times? It is, as hunters and philosophers say, because the grass and flowers are then in vigour, so that the variety of smells sent out fills the hounds’ sense of smell that they lose track of their game… They who desire for good and all to love God shut up their understanding from discoursing of worldly things… Whosoever desires something which he desires not for God that much less desires God.
Saint Francis de Sales