Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Observation, Discovery, Progress, Genius, Religion, Reading, Education, Error

    The writer reflects on how many 'useful or interesting discoveries' owe their origin and improvement to observation (187). 'By observation, astronomers have learned to foretell the movements of the heavenly bodies, agriculturalists to promote the fertility of the soil, naturalists to account for the phenomena of nature, and philosophers to search into the mind of man, and to trace out its devious labyrinth. Much is said in praise of genius; it is extolled, almost deified by us, and doubtless we owe much to it, but may not we trace many of the wonders we ascribe to genius, to that habit of observation [...] which will not rest satisfied with conjecture, and which suffers no point to remain unnoticed' (187–88). It is a religious duty to cultivate this talent, but many do not. The writer contrasts impractical scholars who learn from books with those who have 'made a diligent use of what they possess in common observation' and are dependent on themselves for what they learn. There is 'something more impressive in the knowledge we gain from what we ourselves observed [...]. We feel a pleasure in the injunction idea that it is the fruit of our own discovery'. (188) Learning by observation also develops individual judgement in place of blind reliance on authority.