| Finding the Way |
Chapter 20 |
Page 3 |
Far more than we know does this matter of eyes or no eyes make our world for us. We are in the midst of most glorious things all the while, but some of us see nothing and miss all the inspiration that would mean so much to us if only our eyes were opened. We talk of a lost Paradise, but there is still a Paradise for those who can see it. George Macdonald says: “I suspect we shall find some day that the loss of the human paradise consists chiefly in the closing of the human eyes; that at least far more of it than people think remains about us still, only we are so filled with foolish desires and evil cares that we cannot see or hear, cannot even smell or taste, the pleasant things around us.”
There is a little book called Eyes and No Eyes, which tells of two boys who one day went out for a walk together. When they came back, a friend asked one of them what he had seen. He said he had seen nothing. He had been traveling through dust and along rough paths, but he had not seen anything beautiful or interesting in all the two hours’ walk. When the other boy was asked the same question, he replied with much enthusiasm, telling of a hundred beautiful things he had seen in his walk – in the fields and in the woods – flowers and plants and bits of landscape, birds and squirrels and rippling streams. The two boys had walked together over the same path, and while one had seen nothing to give him pleasure, the other came back with his mind full of lovely images and bright recollections. Both had looked on the same objects, from the same points of view, but they had looked through different lenses.
There always are two classes of people among those who journey together – those with eyes which see and those who, having eyes, see nothing. There are many people who never see the stars, or the hills, or the blue sky, or the flowers, nor any beauty in plant or tree or living creature. A story is told of Turner, the artist, who stood one day with a lady before one of his great paintings. The visitor looked a long time at the picture, and then said, “Mr. Turner, I cannot see those things in nature.” Looking at her thoughtfully, he replied, “Don’t you wish you could madam?”
Page 3