ON HABITS OF OBSERVING. 5 



science of Natural History, is nevertheless a means 

 to that end ; and, whatever principles we ultimate- 

 ly arrive at, it is only observation that can have 

 insured their correctness or permanence. Hence the 

 facts and observed phenomena collected by such 

 persons may be of much value to others, though the 

 observers themselves make no immediate use of 

 them. And it has not unfrequently happened, 

 that the profoundest naturalists, whilst engaged in 

 the higher departments of the science, have ex- 

 pressed themselves indebted to some retired ob- 

 server for the knowledge of a fact which has proved 

 of the greatest importance to their views, and been 

 one of the main supports of the theory they were 

 seeking to establish. 



(3.) Of course it is presumed that the observa- 

 tions we propose making in any department of 

 nature should be correct, which is all that is ne- 

 cessary to give them value and importance ; and, 

 without this, they will have no value at all. 

 It is essential to premise this, because some per- 

 sons, who are not habituated to observing, may fall 

 unintentionally into errors, and, being first de- 

 ceived themselves, may afterwards mislead others. 

 Further on it will be our object to lay down a 

 few rules, and to suggest certain hints, that may 

 prove of service in this matter, and by attending 

 to which, young observers may be put upon their 

 guard, and withheld from needlessly sacrificing both 

 their time and their labour. 



(4.) But further ; it has happened in most sci- 

 ences that the collecting of facts, and the deducing 



