A FIRM EAR. 69 



ture is seen to the best advantage. He who starts 

 at the crash of a falling stone, cannot stand safely 

 on cliffs ; and he who shudders when a sea breaks 

 over the bows, dare not rock on a mast-head in a 

 gale ; and yet he, who has so schooled his senses 

 as to be able to keep them ready, and his mind 

 calm, in those situations, sees views and enjoys 

 pleasure, of which the careless and the timid can 

 have no conception. Collins knew that well, and 

 expressed it beautifully : 



" First Fear, his hand, its skill to try, 



Amid the chords bewilder'd laid; 

 Then back recoil'd, he knew not why, 



E'en at the sound himself had made." 



The same principle carries us a good deal farther ; 

 and it is worth following for at least part of the 

 way, because being always collected and ready 

 is the very soul of observation. Now just as we 

 are never in the least surprised at our own 

 thoughts, however extraordinary they might ap- 

 pear if they were told to others, and never have 

 the least doubt of the truth of even the most 

 absurd and practically impossible of them; and 

 not only so, but we stand up manfully for them, 

 and resist with all our might and as long as ever 

 we can the external evidence which, in the end, 

 convinces us that we are wrong ; so, also, we are 

 never frightened or alarmed at any one of our 

 single sensations, be its subject or its consequences 

 what they may. The soldier who, in advancing 

 to the charge, receives his death wound, continues 

 to rush on a few steps, and falls painless and 

 dead ; and if that extreme case can be met with- 

 out any thing that causes unhappiness, surely all 

 the inferior cases may. 



