The story is told of a famous naturalist who was walking with a friend along a noisy and crowded street in lower New York City. In the midst of the bedlam of sounds the naturalist casually remarked, "I hear a cricket." His companion scoffed at the idea, declaring it impossible to hear the tiny chirp of a cricket in all that din. Unperturbed the naturalist led his friend to a basement window, and there on the ledge was a cricket! "Wait," said the naturalist, "I'll show you something else;" and he dropped a dimeA correction was made in the December 20, 1947 Sentinel: In the article "How Do You Hear and See?" in the Sentinel of August 23, 1947, it is stated that to illustrate a point one "dropped a nickel on the sidewalk" and that it made a "light tinkling sound." The coin should have been described as a dime, for of course a five-cent piece, made of a different metal, would not produce this sound. on the sidewalk. It made a light tinkling sound, scarcely discernible one would think in all that roar, but immediately there was a rush to pick it up.

One sees and hears that in which one is most interested. This denotes the mental element essential to human sight and hearing. If this mental element proceeds from the human mind, it expresses the interests, vagaries, and limited capacities of that mind. The human ear cannot detect sounds too far away, nor is it tuned to certain delicate vibrations perceptible to some birds and animals. The mocking bird, for example, can outdo the human sense of hearing, for it catches and reproduces notes of birds that are inaudible to men.

The human faculty of sight is restricted not only in extent but in clarity of perception. Even at their normal level, human sight and hearing vary according to the aptitude, training, and environment of the individual. The artist discerns nuances of color and subtleties of form unobserved by the ordinary beholder. The musician and the naturalist detect sounds unnoticed by the layman.

If seeing and hearing proceed from the divine Mind, they are unlimited in scope. In the twentyeighth chapter of the book of Job is described a type of vision unattained by humanity (verse 24): "He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven." No limit to that vision, no nearsightedness or farsightedness! Everything is visible, from the infinitesimal to the infinite. This astounding power of sight is a characteristic of divine Mind, our Father, and is individualized in His son, spiritual man.

If we turn to the sixty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, we read a similar description of the hearing faculty (verse 24): "It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." What a concept of hearing! Before they call! Manifestly this denotes a higher type of hearing than that derived from the human ear. It defines the spiritual perceiving of the all-hearing Mind. It proclaims the responsiveness of divine Love.

When Christ Jesus prayed at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:41, 42): "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always," his words indicated that he knew that with God there is perpetual hearing, hearing with no variation, no diminution, a ready and unfailing comprehension of all. On page 7 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The 'divine ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied."

True hearing may thus be thought of as the universal, constant spiritual understanding possessed by divine Mind and expressed by its idea, spiritual man. True seeing is the deific Mind's unlimited perception. Divine Love possesses and governs them both. Seeing by the physical eye and hearing by the physical ear of the things and sounds of earth are beliefs only. True perception belongs not to material person, but to Principle, Mind. When we are thinking of the senses as our personal possessions, we forfeit perfection, since everything humanly personal is finite and mutable. Imperfection and misunderstanding are the outcome of mere belief. But spiritual understanding corrects human misunderstanding and is the essence of true seeing and hearing.

What does God see and hear? This is not a presumptuous question, for the answer must be found before our efforts to see and hear exactly can be successful. Without spiritual perception, there would be no enduring beauty. If God did not hear, there would be no music of Soul. It has been said of Mozart's music that there is something about it which cannot be explained by the ordinary considerations of rhythm, melody, and harmony. It transcends them all and proclaims its higher origin. While cheered at a performance of his oratorio, "The Creation," Haydn once lifted his hand and cried, "It all came from there." It is not perception of material objects and sounds that we primarily need, but the discernment of spiritual realities. On page 510 of Science and Health we read, "How much more should we seek to apprehend the spiritual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense!"

On the Isle of Patmos the exiled Apostle John manifested this discriminating sense perception. The entire book of Revelation is a record of his spiritual seeing and hearing. Repeatedly the words occur: "And I saw"; "And I heard." Yet his seeing refers to no material object; his hearing to no material sound. It was revealed to him that in everpresence there is no distance. "A new heaven and a new earth" constituted the range and content of his perception. Commenting upon John's experience, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 573 of Science and Health, "The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,—that which is invisible to the uninspired thought."

The beauty which God sees, the harmony which God hears, are of the universe of Spirit, and this universe is ever present, though "invisible to the uninspired thought." Whether it be in desert loneliness, as on the Isle of Patmos, or in the noise of city streets, we may always retreat into the secret place where we may see what God gives us to see and hear what God causes us to hear. Then it may be said of us as Jesus said of his disciples (Matt. 13:16), "Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."