This illustrates truly the breadth and power of wholesome human sympathy.  With a real love for human nature, if a man has a clear, high standard of his own,—­a standard which he does not attribute to his own intelligence—­his understanding of the lower standards of other men will also be very clear, and he will take all sorts and conditions of men into the region within the horizon of his mind.  Not only that, but he will recognize the fact When the standard of another man is higher than his own, and will be ready to ascend at once when he becomes aware of a higher point of view.  On the other hand, when selfishness is sympathizing with selfishness, there is no ascent possible, but only the one little low place limited by the personal, selfish interests of those concerned.

Nobody else’s trouble seems worth considering to those who are immersed in their own, or in their selfish sympathy with a friend whom they have chosen to champion.  This is especially felt among conventional people, when something happens which disturbs their external habits and standards of life.  Sympathy is at once thrown out on the side of conventionality, without any rational inquiry as to the real rights of the case.  Selfish respectability is most unwholesome in its unhealthy sympathy with selfish respectability.

The wholesome sympathy of living human hearts sympathizes first with what is wholesome,—­especially in those who suffer,—­whether it be wholesomeness of soul or body; and true sympathy often knows and recognizes that wholesomeness better than the sufferer himself.  Only in a secondary way, and as a means to a higher end, does it sympathize with the painful circumstances or conditions.  By keeping our sympathies steadily fixed on the health of a brother or friend, when he is immersed in and overcome by his own pain, we may show him the way out of his pain more truly and more quickly.  By keeping our sympathies fixed on the health of a friend’s soul, we may lead him out of selfishness which otherwise might gradually destroy him.  In both cases our loving care should be truly felt,—­and felt as real understanding of the pain or grief suffered in the steps by the way, with an intelligent sense of their true relation to the best interests of the sufferer himself Such wholesome sympathy is alert in all its perceptions to appreciate different. points of view, and takes care to speak only in language which is intelligible, and therefore useful.  It is full of loving patience, and never forces or persuades, but waits and watches to give help at the right time and in the right place.  It is more often helpful with silence than with words.  It stimulates one to imagine what friendship might be if it were alive and wholesome to the very core.  For, in such friendship as this, a true friend to one man has the capacity of being a true friend to all men, and one who has a thoroughly wholesome sympathy for one human being will have it for all.  His general attitude must always be the same—­modified only by the relative distance which comes from variety in temperaments.