The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-02-14
KNOWING HOW TO OBSERVE.

in tie dark camera of the mind. Even
the ear-old hid whose reason ng pow
are as vet undeveloped, can note and
follow with the eve and ear and hand the
movements whi h 60 on within IS little
sphere. An that not ng and following
sc m Ia come to the child instinctively
and easily. rather than to be the result
OF any onsc attempt ut learn ng
how 10 use its powers OF servatfon.
Is it auv won Ter then, that grown-up
persons, who can thoroughly en- o, their
book or their maya inc, should feel
that'the offer to teach them how to see
things partakes of the natLre of an
insult?
Yet, as a matter of fat there IS hard
ly any sub ect in which the need OF in
struction is greater. The man who has
not been prepared by special course
o aiming. or by 3 ecial e<per ence,
to see things aright IN a given sphere,
is sure o mix uD what he sees with
what he thinks he sees, and what he
ecls about the subject in hand. he Is
prett 10 note care ully the things
which have little meaning. and 10 let
some of the essent ais go unnoted.
lake an extreme example. A cloud
gathers in the aut INN evening run
some mountain head. and at last drifts
slowly of into the sky. Two OBSERVERS
have watched the formation of that
cloud; the one n child, the other me-
teorolCgi>t Ask the child hat he
saw, and he may give you some such
account as this: "Ohi Issw steam m
ing out of hole in the top OF the
mountain. saw the hole quite plainly;
AMI there W 5 boiling water in the hole.
There was smoke mixed WITH the cam,
nd hxv, f.ln nd
/ guess il s burning mountain, and
at IS where II the clouds come from. !"
One who lis ened to that ac-
cunt would ha div know W ut the
| child saw, and what he did not see.
Glance, on The other hand. at the note
book of the sc entific observer. You
II find that he has noted points of
VIII ch The child never cream d, but
| wh ch ere essentia to the understand
| ing o the formation of that cloud. IL s
memoranda II tell you OF the varying
| degrees o: tempera ure and OF the hui
md ty o the atmosphere during the
tJI of Ahe observation. The exact
| ros ton of the mountain summit has
been noe its relations to the noun
Ia n masses around it. and its distance
from the sea or other bod es of water.
| So far as possible. the direct on, force
and he ghts of the prevailing air-cur-
rents. and the e ectri al cond ton of
| the earth and the atmos here, have
Eeen found and noted. This observer
knows that the ext lanai on of what is
pe,.ul ar in the or alton of that par
iicular cloud may lie in any one of q
hundred Wis BILE cooperating causes.
not one of which TIE IGNORANT or care
| less observer would either see or note.
so he registers every thing even the
| n ost triv al which may aLect the WORK.
ing out OF the problem.
| Such care ul and consc entious OBJ
servation as this consorts we'll with the
h s orical and genealogical associations
the world. OLservat ON. in the vo-
| cabulary of the Romans, was the special
name for that reverent, patent atten-
ton wh ch the scholar owes to his teach
er. To-day the lea lers o: physical sci
| en,e preser the honorable Q meaning of
! the word when they res rict it to the
scholar ike noting the phenomena of
nature, and re use to give'it to the mas
lSer-like handling OF nature in expert
ment And the Importance, even in
pm seal researches, of tn s .reverent
! teachab enesS, is seen in the fact that
there is no VIZ ter on the me hod of sci
ence. from Bacon down to Whewell and
evons, who has not evoted great
| part o. his treat Sc TO the discuss on and
e ucidat on of this seeming y simple sub
| jc { -. -I geu.
The first step towards knowing how
| to serve is TO Ind out how Temiss one
us all. is in this line. Copy as careful
/, a you can a word or two in some
complex character which you do net
know, such as the Arabic or the an
scrit. Be sure that you have an exact
reproduction OF the headline which you
have chosen then take it to some one
who is fami iar with the langu ge OF the
writ ng. Unless you are n far more
accurate observer than most men are.
| YOU friend wi have to show YOU Iat
YOU have perversely exaggera,ed the
non-essential forms anl slurred over he
essential. Or yo can test yourself in q
| hundred different ways. You remarked
on he beauty OF the church building
| which yo passed yss erday. Can you
/ tell how anv pillars clustered abo Il its
| porch Did You note VIII ther they
were OF the Ionic or of the Corin hian
der? hen that strangely spelled
\ W ird wh ch you IN 'ountered in your
mag zine reading last week are you
ahle to-day TO writ its spell ngotf h nd,
an to give its meaning and proper pro
| nrn iation
When ou have found out how care
less on are in your reading o the
things which exist and he deeds which
are done arc nd you, you will he the
bet er pr pared to rain you self 10
habits OF sy ,temat obser at on. At
rst-nav, all through your course OF
\ training you will have to look out for
trap at every step of the path YOU
must be perpetually calling the m nd to
attention. Know ng that yo are liable
to be content with vague i'm, ressions
and n grn raj sur ace knowledge. you
mu-t determine to scrut nize over thing
strictly, almost painfully. When you
seem to yourself to have noted all that
l. to be noted. stop and ask yourself.
What If / am asSei shout tn s or that
detail? You must he cont nually loo>iug
on, Tor what the old logic ans called the
a. feren IN of the thing-the something
which distinguishes it from every otlfeT
tn m o. the same kind. hen ou have
found hat, you will generally have
founi at hat is worth knowing about that
thing.
And in doing all this you must not
forget the old spec al sense OF the word
obse vaNou." Whether your field oi
wo k be the world of books, of nature
or of men, you must approach il in a