ON HABITS OF OBSERVING. 35 



haunts of nature, determined to see and judge for 

 themselves, with as much caution and exactness 

 as possible. 



(22.) The second class of prejudices above alluded 

 to are not those of an uneducated mind, but of one 

 that has been warped by long reflection on a pecu- 

 liar train of ideas. Under such circumstances, the 

 observer sees everything through a distorted mirror. 

 His usual habits of thinking interfere, and mix 

 themselves up, with the impressions of the senses, 

 substituting, in many cases, a false image for the true 

 one. Nothing is noticed but what bears upon the 

 favourite matter of speculation ; or, if observed, it is 

 not observed in its proper colours, and often, when 

 the mind is on the search for novelty, it is so full of 

 a preconceived idea, that it fancies it sees what has 

 no existence in nature. This is too frequently 

 the case with those naturalists who have some 

 theory to maintain, and who seek to uphold and 

 confirm their particular views by an appeal to facts. 

 Everything appears to fall in exactly with their pre- 

 conceived notions. Instances in point are readily 

 found; sometimes resemblances traced, and infer- 

 ences drawn, the former quite inappreciable to other 

 eyes, the latter quite illogical to other minds. There 

 is not here, any more than in the case of the class of 

 prejudices first mentioned, any real intention of per- 

 verting the truth ; but the judgment is so blinded 

 by a strong desire to find things squaring with its 

 own views, that it becomes utterly unable to take 

 proper hold of the naked truth, or interpret it 

 aright. 



