never persuade him to look on the
bright side of life. While this bustling, vivacious personage, who
approaches us with such a springy step, and rapid merry glance, has
never known a day's illness--is indebted to hearsay for his belief in
nerves--and is ready to challenge Europe to beat him at a hearty
guffaw--_he_ is perplexed by the shadow of a long face, marvels with
all his might at a heavy eye, and cannot unriddle the philosophy of a
bent brow. When shall we learn that the result of looking depends on
the state of the eye--that the vision is modified by the position of
the seer--that he who stands on one side, sees one side only? Says
Wordsworth--

We safely may affirm that human life
Is either fair or tempting, a soft scene,
Grateful to sight, refreshing to the soul,
Or a forbidden tract of cheerless view,
_Even as the same is looked at, or approached_.

And the pastor of the _Excursion_, who is the spokesman, illustrates
his doctrine by shewing that the church-yard among the mountains, in
which he and his companions are standing, if approached from the
sullen north, when 'in changeful April, fields are white with
new-fallen snow,' and ere the sun has gained his noontide height, will
appear an 'unillumined, blank, and dreary plain, with more than wintry
cheerlessness and gloom saddening the heart;' whereas, if it be
regarded from the quarter whence the lord of light dispenses his
beams, '_then_ will a vernal prospect greet your eye'--

All fresh and beautiful, and green and bright,
Hopeful and cheerful--vanished is the pall
That overspread and chilled the sacred turf,
Vanished or hidden; and the whole domain,
To some, too lightly minded, might appear
A meadow carpet for the dancing hours.

The same principle of mental optics is of universal application. We
cannot ignore it without fatal results when studying history, science,
art, human nature, or any conceivable object of inquiry. Thus, in
forming our opinion of the actions of others, there is no more
mischievous absurdity, it has been remarked, than to judge them from
the outside as they look to us, instead of from the inside as they
look to the actors; nothing more irrational than to criticise deeds as
though the doers of them had the same hopes, fears, desires, and
restraints with ourselves. 'We cannot understand another's character
except by abandoning our own identity, and realising to ourselves his
frame