I watched a young man once spend his entire evening polishing a mirror until it shone like silver, believing he had made the glass itself brighter. He did not know that the light came from his own hands and eyes, nor that the reflection was but a borrowed glory. We are all so busy arranging our tools to fit the world, forgetting that the world fits us by what we can see of it. It is a vanity to think the object changes its nature because we look at it differently; rather, our blindness or clarity reveals only what we bring to the gaze.

What I ask of you is this: do not let your pride make you believe your understanding is the final truth of a thing. When you judge another man’s character, or your own reputation, remember that you see only the shadow cast by your own mind upon their substance. Be willing to lower your eyes from the universal and touch the matter, for even in its roughness, there is a reality that pure thought cannot grasp without help.