"Judge the people by their actions"--tis a rule you often get--
"Judge the actions by their people" is a wiser maxim yet.
Have I known you, brother, sister? Have I looked into your heart?
Mingled with your thoughts my feelings, taken of your life my part?
Through the warp of your convictions sent the shuttle of my thought
Till the web became the Credo, for us both, of Should and Ought?
Seen in thousand ways your nature, in all act and look and speech?
By that large induction only I your law of being reach.
Now I hear of this wrong action--what is that to you and me?
Sin within you may have done it--fruit not nature to the tree.
Foreign graft has come to bearing--mistletoe grown on your bough--
If I ever really knew you, then, my friend, I know you now.
So I say, "He never did it," or, "He did not so intend";
Or, "Some foreign power o'ercame him"--so I judge the action, friend.
Let the mere outside observer note appearance as he can;
We, more righteous judgment passing, test each action by its man.
--James Freeman Clarke.
"TO KNOW ALL IS TO FORGIVE ALL"
If I knew you and you knew me,
If both of us could clearly see,
And with an inner sight divine
The meaning of your heart and mine,
I'm sure that we would differ less,
And clasp our hands in friendliness;
Our thoughts would pleasantly agree
If I knew you and you knew me.
--Nixon Waterman.