As I look at my universe and walk among my fellow humans， I have the deep belief that hidden realities are all around us. These hidden realities are there in the physical world； and they are there， also， in the human world. If I am foolish enough to think that I see all there is to be seen in front of my eyes， I simply miss the glory.
I believe， then， that my chief job in life—and my astonishing privilege4—is to snap on an extra power so that I can see what my naked eyes—or my naked mind—cannot now see. I believe that I have to do this particularly with my human fellows. My ordinary eyes tend to stop short at those opaque envelopes we call human bodies. But we have learned that by turning on a certain power we can penetrate to the inside of these envelopes.
We call this extra power "imagination". At its highest， we call it "empathy"， the power to see through and to feel through to the inner life of other human beings. It is a kind of ultraviolet lamp of our psychic life. When we turn on this lamp of imaginative sensitivity， we make the prosaic human beings around us come excitingly alive.
Zona Gale once set down as the first article of her creed： "I believe in expanding the areas of my awareness." I' d do the same. If I expand the areas of my awareness， I move understandingly into realities beyond me. When I move into them understandingly， I know what I can do and what I should do. If I don' t move in understandingly， if I stay in ignorance on the outside， then， in all likelihood， I will do mistaken things.
The great principle of love depends upon this. He who loves another tries truly to understand the other. We can reverse this： he who tries truly to understand another is not likely to hate that other.
Socrates gave no finished catalogue of the "truths" of the world. He gave， rather， the impulse to search. This is far better， I feel， than dogmatic certainty. When we are aware that there are glories of life still hidden from us， we walk humbly before the Great Unknown. But we do more than this： we try manfully to increase our powers of seeing and feeling so that we can turn what is still unknown into what is warmly and understandingly known...This， I believe， is our great human adventure.