The Gift of Perception

Emerson says our past actions strung together, are angels that attest to our virtue and character. He implores us to take a posthumous, rather than a timely view of the world. The force of character is cumulative - can you see how each and every sentence is resonant? We have perspective as readers, we are god's overlooking the characters in the novel. And very often we have historical perspective. When we read anna krenina, we are so firmly removed from time and place and the domestic drama ourselves,. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could see as clearly in our own lives too?