Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-01-31
Value of Observation.

The late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
once said that he never saw anybody
do anything without watching to see
how it was done, as there was no
knowing but that sometime he might
have to do it himself This habit of
observation once served him in good
stead. 81 was going" he says, "across
Il prairie when my horse began
to limp. Luckily, l came across a
blacksmith's shop, but the smith was
not at home. l asked the woman of
the house if she would allow me to
start fire and make the shoe. She
said / might if 1 knew how. So l
started the fire and heated the shoe
red hot, and turned it to fit my horses
foot, and pared the hoofs, and turned
the points of the nails out cunningly,
as l had seen the blacksmith do, so
that in driving into the hoof they
should not get into the quick, and /
shod the horse. AT the next place |
went to l went straight to a smith
and told him to put the shoe on pro-
perly. He looked at the horses foot
aid paid me the greatest compliment
lever received in my life. He told me
if put on that shoe, l had better fol-
low blacksmithing all my life. Now,
never should have known how to
do that if / had not looked on and
seen others do it,"
Another writer in a contemporary
on the same subject says:
Every one should cultivate the
faculty of observation. If he does so
designedly, it will not be long before
he will do so unconsciously. 1t is
better to learn a thing by observation
than by experience, especially if it is
something to our detriment. One
would prefer to know which is the
mushroom by observation rather
than by experiment, for the latter
might cost him his life. There is
hardly a vocation in which observa-
ton is not of great service, and in
many it is absolutely essential. 1t
adds to the proficiency of the chemist,
the naturalist, the mining expert, and
the bushman. Observation quickena
experiment. 1t leads to inference, to
deduction, TO classification, and thus
theories are formulated, sciences es.
tablshed. An observing boy will
become an observing man, and, as
boy and man, he will have an advan.
tage over those who have not cult
waited the faculty. He knows thou
sand things that the unobservant boy
does not know. He does not get the
knowledge from books or from 9th.
ers, but acquires it for himself
through the use of his eyes and ears
and properly appreciates it for tina
reason. A child may know more
than philosopher about matters tha
may not have come under the obser'
walton of the philosopher. A little
girl entered the study of Mezerai, the
celebrated historian, and asked hin
for coal of fire. "But you haven
brought a shovel" he said. 81 dom
need any," was her reply. And then
very much to his establishment, sht
filled her hand with ashes and pu
the live coal on top. No doubt tn,
learned man knew that ashes were
bad conductor of heat, but he haC
never seen the fact verified in such {
practical manner. Calico noticed
the swaying of a chandelier in a ca
thedral, and it suggested the pendu
lum to him. To another inventO
the power of steam and its applica
ton was suggested by the tea kettl,
on the stove. A poor monk discov
cred gunpowder, and an optician'
hOI, tho tnounifvinU Ions