The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-07-09
UNSEEING EYES.

Although nature has so variously and in
such different degree endowed mankind,
ranging in intellect from genius to idiocy,
in stature and strength from Goliath to
Tom Thumb, and in moral qualities from
Marcus Aureius to Nero, the distinctions
thus marked are hardly greater than those
which men themselves bring about by their
own voliton, or the lack of it, as the case
NAV be. Every normal person is born with
good eyesight, with organs Of vision that
receive an impression from everything that
they are turned upon, and yet of two per-
sons equally endowed in this respect, one
will see in the course of twenty -four hours
thousand things, of which the other,
though brought usually in contact with
them, remains wholly Unconscious.
Some are naturally observant OF every
thing about them; others not so, but in all,
the power and habit of observation can be
cultivated, and aside from mere bread and
butter getting, for real living, and the en-
ioyment of it, there is nothing so I'M
portant.
Among city jewellers one makes his way
back and forth from home or lodging to
business or toll, seeing little but the pave
ment and conscious only Of the passing
crowd. Another observes with fresh in
terest every day the infinite variety OF face,
figure and dress as the crowds Of people
pass along, and now and again cheerily
greets some acquaintance. He enjoys
every bright shop window and every now
and then he looks up to the little strip OF
blue that opens above him and sees visions
of the overarching sky and the woods and
fields that lie beneath it.
To the jewellers in the country the de-
gree of care with which they notice and
study the varieties of life and beauty
everywhere in evidence makes much more
difference than in the city, because the
range and diversity is larger. Rural OBJ
servers are confined to no class. When
we read how "homeward the weary plow-
man plods his way" we are apt to think of
him as wholly apathetic to all about him,
but Robert Burns was one of those weary
plowmen and his unrivaled songs are at
tuned not only to the throbbing of the hu-
man heart, but to all that is loveliest in
Nature. Hugh Miller, the stone mason,
read with keenest intelligence and almost
poetic insight the story of the rocks, and
was leader among those who early began
to unfold the long, wonderful history of the
formation of our planet.
OF course, in the country, to a great
many, the landscape means nothing, the
sun is but signal for getting up to another
day of toll and the stars are only little far
off Pickering lights, rarely noticed. Hav'
ing eyes, they see not. Passing from them
and to the class closest to the soil where We
find observers and lovers of Nature like
Burns and Miller, we come to the educated
observers, like White of Selborne, Thoreal
LII. rb, hat Il 81,
is to take chapter of Nature at SECOND
hand from any one of them, and the secre
of their charm is not only their close sym.
and the flowing musical style, limped as E
impressions, but the wonderful keenness O
have been through just such scenes as they
much more intelligently, did they see thar
you did.
1t is worth great deal of pains to give
children such power of enjoyment for al
their lives, and it is besides the natural
easiest and most effective way OF training
their faculties. Before they are old enough
to learn to read teach them to see the diff
ference and to know the names of the trees
and birds and flowers; form habit wher
they have been anywhere of telling accu
rately and as infinitely as possible jus
what they have seen. tits excellent train
ing, the benefit of which will go with then
into any walk of life they may follow.
It is not only our physical eyes that WI
close or fail to use, to our own loss ant
detriment, but we neglect to use our men
tai vision, or never lift it above the drear!
fogs and mists of everyday life and com
monplace things. Like the man with tn
muck rake, We are wholly taken up will
gathering rubbish, and never look into tn
depths of our own souls, or off into tn,
infinite beyond the fartherest star. LIE
US realize that we have range of vision
intellectual and spiritual, which compasse
not only the history of our little globe, bu
can carry us from system to system
throughout the boundless universe.