Short Summer Days. 145 



with your own eyes, and having seen, be as firm 

 concerning the fact as is the rock-ribbed earth ; 

 but be very sure you see aright. Do not leave 

 the spot thinking, but knowing. There is a vast 

 difference, and time too often allows the former 

 to merge into the latter, and your impression 

 becomes a conviction. Such results, like pois- 

 onous snakes, are to be avoided, and yet there 

 may be as much disaster in allowing want of 

 self-confidence to unmake you, and the facts 

 lose their value treating them as probabilities 

 merely. Much has been lost to the world in 

 consequence of this. There is no setting apart 

 of a few men who are to be the world's fact- 

 determiners. The wood-chopper at his work is 

 as likely to see a rare bird as the naturalist with 

 his gun and field-glass. He may not know 

 that it is rare, but he does know that it is rare 

 to him ; and woe betide the theorist who de- 

 clares the wood-chopper unfamiliar with the 

 woods. That which has been declared non- 

 existent has too often proved prevalent when 

 the unlearned has gained a hearing. 



The arrogance of learning, defending snap 

 judgment, is a potent cause of the continuance 



