Article December 20, 1913 Issue

An Exaggerated Perspective

VERNE E. TAYLOR

Every line of human activity may, in its every-day incidents and conditions, offer to the student of Christian Science analogies at once interesting and helpful. One such was recently presented to a student whose daily work has to do with amateur photography, by a ludicrously distorted picture of a cow. The gentle bovine expression of the exaggerated face of the animal added to the absurd effect, and completed as laughable a caricature as can be imagined.

It does not seem possible that any person who had ever seen a living cow would be at all likely to accept this print as a trustworthy likeness of the creature; and yet, to one who faithfully believes what he sees and refuses to go farther for enlightenment, here was irrefragable evidence of the existence of a monstrosity. A slight knowledge of optics, however, would convince him that the grotesque effect was not chargeable to any irregularity in the make-up of the cow, but was a simple illustration of an exaggerated perspective, an aberation produced by a certain type of uncorrected lens, by which the effect of distance upon the apparent size of objects is increased beyond the true standard. This distortion reminded the writer that true perspective is as absolutely necessary for a faithful rendering of comparative values in daily life as in artistry. To allow objects, events, or conditions to assume a magnitude out of all proportion to their true value, simply because to our present sense they occupy the immediate foreground in our mental picture, is to give our view of life an exaggerated perspective which will surely produce a concept as unworthy as was the picture referred to in this case.

One of the first considerations in artistic composition is the relative treatment of the foreground. A near object, not undesirable in itself, but which would, if allowed to occupy a position of too great prominence, detract from the merit of the picture, can often by a change of view-point be so subjugated and brought into accord with the theme of the whole as actually to add to the value of the composition; and this, as we speedily learn in Christian Science, is equally true of our treatment of and attitude toward other experiences. This point may be illustrated by the case of a young woman who through the activities of scientific right thinking secured much-needed and almost ideal employment. For a time her daily life was one continued song of gratitude; then in connection with her duties came an incident which brought a sense of annoyance, and this assumed such proportions in the immediate foreground of her thinking that there was little opportunity for contemplation of the more pleasant phases of her work. Gratitude was forgotten; easy hours, pleasant work, and good salary were overlooked; and every good and attractive aspect of her work was more or less completely obscured by her enormously exaggerated sense of what was really a trifle. After a time, however, this young woman began to realize that her whole outlook on life was being distorted by this exaggerated perspective, and she determined so to change her view-point as to cause the incident to assume a proportion more in keeping with its true importance. To this end she ceased to think of it; and in a surprisingly short time not only had the circumstance ceased to annoy her, but in assuming a less obtrusive position in her mental composition, it came to fit in most harmoniously with the general atmosphere of confidence and cooperation which pervaded the office.

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