Coincidentally, I came across this last night when looking for something else
entirely :-)
"The last effort of this [demiurgic] sort made by the Valar was the raising up
of the Pelori - but this was not a good act: it came near to countering Morgoth
in his own way - apart from the element of selfishness in its object of
preserving Aman as a blissful region to live in." (From Morgoth's Ring,
"Myths Transformed".)
Now, to be fair, I must add that there's a later version of this passage where
JRRT's gentler on the Valar:
"It is possible to view this as, if not an actually bad action, at least as a
mistaken one. Ulmo disapproved of it. It had one good, and legitimate, object:
the preservation incorrupt of at least part of Arda. But it seemed to have a
selfish or neglectful (or despairing) motive also.... The 'Hiding of Valinor'
came near to countering Morgoth's possessiveness by a rival possessiveness...."
Note the use of "possible" and "seems". Later in this section, Tolkien says
that he "thinks" it's wrong to see this as selfishness, a wrong view caused by
our being under the
Shadow.
_____________________________________________
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
