s in proportion as it becomes more familiar.

It exists, in the last analysis, only by its comparative relation to
other things.

It is certain that a child ten years old would seem very large if he
were five feet high, whereas a man of that stature is considered a
dwarf.

Among Oriental races a woman is generally classed as a blonde whose hair
is not absolutely black.

Things only take their real appearance from a comparison with others of
the same kind.

For all his science, an ethnologist, placed in front of a man of an
unknown tribe, would be unable to say whether this man's stature were
normal or below the average in relation to others of his race, since no
information would be forthcoming as to this people's height or
characteristics. It is, therefore, no matter for surprize that the timid
man, shut in upon himself and having no other horizon than the limited
field of his own observations, is disposed to picture them in colors
whose truth he can not verify, since the terms of comparison, vital to
the accomplishment of his end, are not available to him.

It is, therefore, impossible for such a man not to become accustomed to
the idea as it presents itself to him, to such an extent that he is
quite unconscious of its successive changes in character.

Do we notice the growth of a child who is constantly with us until he
reaches man's estate?

Can we measure the development of a blossom into the perfect flower?

Assuredly not, if we have lived daily in the company of the child and
have glanced several times an hour at the blossom.

Both the one and the other will reach maturity without being sensibly
conscious of the fact that they are changing.

But if we go away from the child for a few months, if, in the interval,
we see other children, we can form an estimate of his growth and can
compare him mentally with the other children we have met.

The same is true of the flower. If other duties call us away for the
moment from contemplating it, we will notice the progress of its
unfolding and we will also be able to tell whether, in relation to that
of other plants, it is quick, slow, or merely normal.

The man who is timid, be he never so observant, will derive no benefit
from these observations, for he is quite unable to generalize and refers
them all to a point of view which cramps them hopelessly and gives them
a color that is, entirely false.

So, from the habit of thinking without any opposition, lit