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standard set forth in the following words of John 

 Stuart Mill on the process of observing : — " The 

 observer," says Mill, " 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 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 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, how- 

 ever, is a question not of logic, but of the theory 



