Appreciation as the Elevating Force in Human Nature

When the Pharisees questioned why Jesus ate with publicans and sinners, they revealed a fundamental truth about human dignity: you cannot elevate a man whom you utterly despise. You cannot bring forth the best in someone if you do not believe the best exists within him.

Exell's Victorian illustration proves this principle through biography. William Cowper, despised as a Westminster boy as shrinking and ineffectual, did not unfold his gifts until age fifty—when warmed by loving appreciation, he became one of England's greatest poets. Robert Clyde, mocked by his own father as a booby, conquered India and became a hero of Plassey. George Dalgarno, the most eloquent scholar of his age, was rejected by an English countess who deemed him too stupid to tutor her sons.

We judge men not by what they are or might become, but by our own dull prejudices. Yet the moon shows only one face to earth; angels perceive another side entirely. So too with human character—the woman you despise as commonplace is an angel to her husband; the man you think ineffectual is an idol to his mother.

What makes the difference? Not the man himself, but love, appreciation, and sympathy. When a human soul is not merely a publican or sinner but recognized as a beloved person, he walks in the transfiguring glory of genuine affection. Each soul resembles a cavern full of gems—the casual observer glances through a cranny and sees only darkness, but the lover discerns the hidden light within.