CAUTION IN MERE OBSERVING. 45 



brick by brick. In all these visible cases, which 

 are, as we may term them, matters of pure obser- 

 vation, we are perfectly contented to take " the 

 method of interpolations," and we should be ac- 

 counted stupid absolutely out of our senses, if 

 we even spoke of jumping to the conclusion at a 

 single bound. We know the length of our leap, 

 and we know our strength. If the stream is too 

 wide, we lay stepping stones, and if it is also too 

 deep, we take the boat, or go round by the bridge. 

 In all these cases, the present step of our pro- 

 gress is the footing that enables us to take the 

 next step, and we know that that is the case, and 

 act accordingly, if the last planted foot is not on 

 firm ground, we pause, and consider before we 

 move the other. 



Now, it would save us from much disappoint- 

 ment and uneasiness, and so give us much indi- 

 rect pleasure, as well as the immediate and posi- 

 tive pleasure of succeeding sooner and better, if, 

 in all matters of thought and knowledge, we would 

 take along with us the lesson which observation 

 here gives us. In matters of mere thought, the 

 mind neither knows its own power nor its own ra- 

 pidity; because, in thought, we can do any thing, 

 and we take no time in the doing of it. But there 

 is no action, and no use, in which the body does 

 not bear its part; and, therefore, if the mind does 

 not take the body along with it, our thoughts are 

 idle dreams, not capable of being reduced to prac- 

 tice, and hence of no use or value. It is the 

 former step that supports us while we take the pre- 

 sent one, as it is the former course of bricks or 

 stones that supports the one which we are build- 

 ing, and enables us to build it ; and as, without 



