As a Matter of Course

ecause he feels injured. There are times when we cannot agree with a friend in the necessity for mourning or feeling injured; but

thizing with the fact that red must be green as he sees it, one can help him to bring h

pathy enables us to serv

prehension of his point of view, however unreal it may be in itself, we do our best to see his trouble in an unprejudiced light, that is sympathy indeed; for our real sympathy is with the man himself, cleared from his selfish fog. What is called our sympathy with his

ive one from whom we have received an injury. His point of view taken, his animosity against

en though his blindness may be absolutely and ent

n, and thus enables us to gain a better standpoint It certainly helps us to enduring patience; whereas a positive refusal to reg

most to be desired. It requires a clear head and a warm heart to understand the prejudices of a fri

into one, and that one is more easily found through not disputing our own with another's. Thro

of gain to come. It steadily opens a clearer knowledge and a heartier appreciation of human nature. We see in individuals traits of character, good and bad, that we never could have recognized whilst blinded by our own

able health to stay there for an hour. Yet the doctor keeps his sensitive, nervously excited patients sitting in this heterogeneous mass of discordant objects hour after hour. Surely it is no psychological subtlety of insight that gives a man of this

o doubt that with that effort on the part of friends and relatives, many cases of severe

her. A prompt, kind, and direct answer will save her at once from further nervous suffering of that sort. To keep an anxious person, whether he be sick or well, watching t

A wise patience with such anxieties will help greatly towards removing their cause. A wise patience is no

nerves gives us the power to be lovingly brief in our response to the

of view. We know a whole more perfectly as a whole if we have a distinct knowledge of the component parts. We can only understand human nature en masse through a daily clearer knowledge of and sympathy with its individuals. Every one of us knows the happiness of having at least one friend whom he is perfectly sure will neither undervalue him no

little matters of everyday life that the difficulty arises. Of course the big ways count for less if th

limit would make the open sympathy impossible. One is just as far from a clear comprehension of human nature wh

, keener delight in understanding others, individually and collectively, and greater ability to serve others; and all these must g

and is necessarily limited. The only thing to do is to acknowledge that we cannot see the point of view,

o be happy, who had apparently not a single thing in life to interfere with his own happiness. The duty may be clear enough, but he certainly was not in a position to recogn

big, which we shall be enabled to give to others an

of it all appea

ling of sympathetic friendship? Who wants his nerves to be steadily irritated by various forms of intole

e first step up, and the steps beyond go ever upward. Human nature is worth kno

selves are

about it; we seem always to be doing the wrong thing, when our desire is to do the right. This comes, of course, fr

else, is what helps. And the o