438 INDUCTION. 



by another chaos. We must decompose each chaos 

 into single facts. We must learn to see in the chaotic 

 antecedent a multitude of distinct antecedents, in the 

 chaotic consequent a multitude of distinct conse- 

 quents. This, supposing it done, will not of itself 

 tell us on which of the antecedents each consequent is 

 invariably attendant. To determine that point, we 

 must endeavour to effect a separation of the facts 

 from one another, not in our minds only, but in 

 nature. The mental analysis, 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, 

 confounding it with what he imagines, or with what 

 he infers ; another takes note of the kind of all the 

 circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating their 

 degree, leaves the quantity of each vague and uncer- 

 tain ; 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 

 separating 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 Educa- 

 tion, in the most enlarged sense of the term. There 

 is not properly an Art of Observing. There may 



