As we can see, he had his own way of looking at things. I think he derived it from the gospel.
This simple two sentence description occurs in the middle of the chapter and it serves as a focal point of sorts. Through stories and vignettes told in a few sentences each, Hugo paints a picture for the reader of a man committed to actually living what he believed.
There are several ways that we could attempt to describe M. Myriel’s “own way of looking at things” that he had derived from the gospel. The most succinct is probably this - he genuinely loved his neighbor as himself and sought to treat them the way he would want to be treated. It’s a very simple premise, and one that we can even invert and extend a bit without losing it’s force. I think it would be fair to say that M. Myriel actually sought to know people and then to treat them the way that they would want to be treated because he loved them - and that love was made evident by his actions and orientation.
One thing that becomes clear in these vignettes is that this simple way of life has all sorts of political implications. It wasn’t that Myriel set out to be a political activist. It was that in his orientation of love for neighbor while carrying out his duties he kept running into systemic issues and problems. Whether thoughts on the death penalty, or the need for free education, or just the woes of the peasantry that made up a large part of his bishopric, Myriel’s commitment to actually living his stated belief put him in a position where he was politically at odds with the aristocracy he had once been a part of.
This chapter reminded me of the simple idea that choosing to love your neighbor is an inherently political act. Next time I see some religious leader (a contemporary equivalent of M. Myriel) bending over backwards and finding ways to make the biblical text match a justification for mass deportation or any number of other atrocities that align with the political leaders whose favor they desire, I’m going to think of M. Myriel and his “own way of looking at things”. Hopefully I can keep looking at things that same way.