HASTY OBSERVATION 250 



Every one has observed how, after he has 

 made the acquaintance of a new word, that 

 word is perpetually turning up in his reading, 

 as if it had suddenly become the fashion. 

 When you have a thing in mind, it is not long 

 till you have it in hand. Torrey and Drum- 

 mond, the botanists, were one day walking in 

 the woods near West Point. "I have never 

 yet found so and so," said Drummond, naming 

 a rare kind of moss. "Find it anywhere," 

 said Torrey, and stooped and picked it up at 

 their feet. Thoreau could pick up arrowheads 

 with the same ease. Many people have the 

 same quick eye for a four-leafed clover. I may 

 say of myself without vanity, that I see birds 

 with like ease. It is no effort, I cannot help 

 it. Either my eye or my ear is on duty quite 

 unbeknown to me. When I visit my friends, 

 I leave a trail of birds behind me, as old Am- 

 phion left a plantation of trees wherever he sat 

 down and played. 



The scientific habit of mind leads a man to 

 take into account all possible sources of error 

 in such observations. The senses are all so 

 easily deceived. 



People of undoubted veracity tell you of the 

 strange things they have known to rain down, 

 or of some strange bird or beast they have seen. 

 But if you question them closely, you are pretty 

 sure to find some flaw in the observation, or 

 some link of evidence wanting. We are so apt 

 to jump to conclusions; we take one or two 

 steps in following up the evidence, and then 



