CAUTION IN MERE OBSERVING. 63 



of our leap, and we know our strength. If the 

 stream is too wide, we lay stepping-stones, and if it 

 is also too deep, we take the boat, or go round by 

 the bridge. In all these cases, the present step of 

 our progress is the footing that enables us to take 

 the next step, and we know that that is the case, and 

 act accordingly, if the last planted foot is not on 

 firm ground, we pause, and consider before we move 

 the other. 



Now, it would save us from much disappointment 

 and uneasiness, and so give us much indirect plea- 

 sure, as well as the immediate and positive pleasure 

 of succeeding sooner and better, if in all matters of 

 thought and knowledge we would take along with 

 us the lesson which observation here gives us. In 

 matters of mere thought, the mind neither knows its 

 own power nor its own rapidity ; because, in thought, 

 we can do any thing, and we take no time in the 

 doing of it. But there is no action, and no use, in 

 which the body does not bear its part ; and, there- 

 fore, if the mind does not take the body along 

 with it, our thoughts are idle dreams, not capable 

 of being reduced to practice, and hence of no use 

 or value. It is the former step that supports us 

 while we take the present one, as it is the former 

 course of bricks or stones that supports the one 

 which we are building, and enables us to build it ; 

 and as, without the former, and the former in imme- 

 diate juxtaposition, we could not possibly have the 

 latter in either of these, or in any one practical case 

 that we can imagine ; even so it is in all matters 

 of thought, if these are to be of a practical kind, or 

 in any way to deserve the name of knowledge, or 

 even to return in that suggestion which we call mem- 

 ory, or be any thing else than an idle waste of the 

 time that they take in passing, and anguish and re- 

 morse because that time has been wasted to so little 

 purpose. 



If we could zilways thus " keep sight of observa- 



