THE BEATEN TRACK. 101 



a journey in life or in action, there must be obser- 

 vation, and careful and connected observation, all 

 the way from that which was familiarly known 

 before, otherwise there is no security against failure. 

 The man who " loses the points," or gets the " com- 

 pass in his head" reversed, may always be assured 

 that he does so in consequence of some deviation 

 or double that he made, and made just from want 

 of attention to what he was about. As to the fog, 

 there signifies little whether that is in the atmo- 

 sphere or in the mind ; and, indeed, it is far more 

 dangerous in the latter case, the fog of the moor 

 may go off without our attending to it, or we may 

 get out of it ; but we never can escape from the fog 

 of our own inattentive and unobservant minds. 



That there are some principles by which we can 

 find our way, in cases where we can neither see it 

 with our eyes, nor grope it with our hands, is a fact ; 

 and any one who attentively observes the footpaths 

 that are formed on a common or field, where there 

 is no hedge, or any thing to determine the direction, 

 may, in part at least, see and understand the reasons. 

 If we can get instruction from the mere fact of 

 treading a pathway across the common, we surely 

 need not despair of getting instruction from any 

 thing that we choose to observe ; and that will be 

 another argument for attending to small and every- 

 day matters, matters that lie within our observa- 

 tion, and may exercise our thoughts without ex- 

 pense or loss of time. Why should there be a 

 trodden path at all 1 is the first question. People 

 do not follow each other by the scent, as dogs follow 

 their prey ; and their persons, legs, and dispositions 

 differ : so that they cannot have either the ability 

 or the desire of going all the same way. But quad- 

 rupeds, such as sheep, rabbits, and hares, form tracks ; 

 and so do some insects ants for instance. The 

 tracks of ants are nearly straight lines ; and those 

 of quadrupeds are much straighter than human 

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