University of Virginia Library

LOOK UP.

Perhaps it would not make a rap's difference, one
way or the other, in a man's fortunes, whether he looked
up or down; but we always fancied that there was a reason
for the superstition that made a man's habit of looking
down an augury of his success in life; as if his mind
dwelling, with his eyes, continually on the earth, would
better enable him to know how to make money, as a
man who dwells in the dark can see better in the accustomed
darkness, than one who comes directly in from the
light. He keeps his eyes on the ground, and no stray
fourpences or cents escape his eagle vision. Every rag
is marked to see if it may not be a bill in disguise, and
the hope to find a pocket-book or two, while passing along
the street, seems to be continually present in his mind.
His eyes grow heavy with looking down, and when at
last there is no longer occasion to look down, — when he
has found all the fourpences and pocket-books that he
has sought for, — then the light is painful to him, and he
turns to the earth again, before he is dead. Habit makes
it his only happiness, and he goes to seeking for pocket-books
and fourpences again.

If this be the result of looking down, the result of
looking up must be, we should suppose, the opposite of
this. Lifting the eyes above the world brings one to
view things far better than fourpences. As much difference
between them as the difference between a star
of the first magnitude and a gold dollar. The eyelids

turned up, the sunlight streams down upon the mind,
and prepares therein a soil for the reception of good seed,
that shall grow up and bear fruit.

Look up! Who ever thinks of groping about the
foundations of Bunker Hill Monument, when there
are so many pleasures of vision to be gained by climbing
to its summit? The higher the look, or climb, the broader
the view from the lofty position one gains. The most
beautiful and delicate work of a structure is placed at the
top. The fruit that is sweetest is always the nearest
the sun. These are facts that belong to every-day life,
to say nothing of that spiritual looking-up required to
give light to the soul; a commodity which some few
people possess, and seem desirous of benefiting.

But don't, in looking up, lose all memory of earth;
for you can't drop your body as you can your coat, with
your wish, and soar off on the wings of the spirit. When
you look up, keep part of an eye directed to earth, and
avoid the coal-holes and cellar-ways that are open for
your unwary feet. A too deep absorption in things
above the earth may make the star-gazer conscious of a
pain in the back from a too sudden contact with the
“cold, cold ground,” as we saw a printer served on a
cold morning (though whether he was heaven-seeking
is questionable), and who looked very simple as he
gathered himself up after the prostration.

Let the upward look characterize us all, — with the
eye to accidents mentioned above, — and secure for us a
name for aspiring above the grovelling things of the
world, and five of us out of six may be deserving of it.
Look up!