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φαν11 quater

You remind me of some athlete, capable of doing a lot of wonderful
feats upon the trapeze and the slack rope, able to balance a long pole
upon his nose with a glass of wine standing unspilled on the end of it, but who has now
been vainly trying for a quarter of an hour to thread a cambric needle,
and whose unfailing failures would provoke my laughter,
if I were not myself so intent upon seeing him succeed. It is that he is too
right-handed as to the use of his eyes, and looking at the needle with his
right eye alone, though he sees it with both, while this eye being off at one
side, he always misses the eye of the needle. Do, for God’s sake, and for the
sake of God’s truth, try to look with that unpracticed eye of your mind! Learn
to look with both eyes at once! Good, my heart warms to you at seeing your
cool and active perseverance! I must try if a fresh metaphor will not help you.