, 



OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT. 415 



will not of itself tell us on which of the antecedents each conse- 

 quent is in variably attendant. To determine that point, we 

 must endeavour to effect a separation of the facts from one an- 

 other, not in our minds only, but in nature. The mental ana- 

 lysis, however, must take place first. And every one knows that 

 in the mode of performing it, one intellect differs immensely 

 from another. It is the essence of the act of observing ; for 

 the observer is not he who merely sees the thing which is before 

 his eyes, but he who sees what parts that thing is composed of. 

 To do this well is a rare talent. One person, from inattention, 

 or attending only in the wrong place, overlooks half of what 

 he sees : another sets down much more than he sees, confound- 

 ing it with what he imagines, or with what he infers ; another 

 takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but being inex- 

 pert in estimating their degree, leaves the quantity of each 

 vague and uncertain ; another sees indeed the whole, but 

 makes such an awkward division of it into parts, throwing 

 things into one mass which require to be separated, and sepa- 

 rating others which might more conveniently be considered as 

 one, that the result is much the same, sometimes even worse, 

 than if no analysis had been attempted at all. It would be 

 possible to point out what qualities of mind, and modes of 

 mental culture, fit a person for being a good observer : that, 

 however, is a question not of Logic, but of the Theory of Edu- 

 cation, in the most enlarged sense of the term. There is not 

 properly an Art of Observing. There may be rules for ob- 

 serving. But these, like rules for inventing, are properly 

 instructions for the preparation of one's own mind ; for putting 

 it into the state in which it will be most fitted to observe, or 

 most likely to invent. They are, therefore, essentially rules of 

 self -education, which is a different thing from Logic. They 

 do not teach how to do the thing, but how to make ourselves 

 capable of doing it. They are an art of strengthening the 

 limbs, not an art of using them. 



The extent and minuteness of observation which may be 

 requisite, and the degree of decomposition to which it may be 

 necessary to carry the mental analysis, depend on the parti- 

 cular purpose in view. To ascertain the state of the whole 



