o a mutual expression of thought,
and a display of sincere interest. There will be a general feeling
of pleasure amongst them; for that which attracts their attention
produces a unity of mood by overpowering all private and personal
interests.

And in default of some objective interest of the kind I have
mentioned, recourse is usually had to something subjective. A bottle
of wine is not an uncommon means of introducing a mutual feeling of
fellowship; and even tea and coffee are used for a like end.

The discord which so easily finds its way into all society as an
effect of the different moods in which people happen to be for the
moment, also in part explains why it is that memory always idealizes,
and sometimes almost transfigures, the attitude we have taken up at
any period of the past--a change due to our inability to remember all
the fleeting influences which disturbed us on any given occasion.
Memory is in this respect like the lens of a _camera obscura_: it
contracts everything within its range, and so produces a much finer
picture than the actual landscape affords. And, in the case of a man,
absence always goes some way towards securing this advantageous light;
for though the idealizing tendency of the memory requires times to
complete its work, it begins it at once. Hence it is a prudent thing
to see your friends and acquaintances only at considerable intervals
of time; and on meeting them again, you will observe that memory has
been at work.

SECTION 23. No man can see _over his own height._ Let me explain what
I mean.

You cannot see in another man any more than you have in yourself; and
your own intelligence strictly determines the extent to which he comes
within its grasp. If your intelligence is of a very low order, mental
qualities in another, even though they be of the highest kind,
will have no effect at all upon you; you will see nothing in their
possessor except the meanest side of his individuality--in other
words, just those parts of his character and disposition which are
weak and defective. Your whole estimate of the man will be confined to
his defects, and his higher mental qualities will no more exist for
you than colors exist for those who cannot see.

Intellect is invisible to the man who has none. In any attempt to
criticise another's work, the range of knowledge possessed by the
critic is as essential a part of his verdict as the claims of the work
itself.

Hence intercourse with othe