478 On Mental Education. [1855. 



ment. To suppose that any would judge before they professed 

 to know the conditions would seem to be absurd ; on the other 

 hand, to assume that the community does wait to know the 

 conditions before it judges, is an assumption so large that I 

 cannot accept it. Very few search out the conditions ; most 

 are anxious to sink those which oppose their preconceptions ; 

 yet none can be left out if a right judgment is to be formed. 

 It is true, that many conditions must ever remain unknown to 

 us, even in regard to the simplest things in nature : thus as to 

 the wonderful action of gravity, whose law never fails us, we 

 cannot say whether the bodies are acting truly at a distance, 

 or by a physical line of force as a connecting link between 

 them*. The great majority think the former is the case ; 

 Newton's judgment is for the latter f. But of the conditions 

 which are within our reach, we should search out all ; for in 

 relation to those which remain unknown or unsuspected, we 

 are in that very ignorance (regarding judgment) which it is 

 our present object, first to make manifest, and then to remove. 



One exercise of the mind, which largely influences the power 

 and character of the judgment, is the habit of forming clear 

 and precise ideas. If, after considering a subject in our 

 ordinary manner, we return upon it with the special purpose 

 of noticing the condition of our thoughts, we shall be astonished 

 to find how little precise they remain. On recalling the phe- 

 nomena relating to a matter of fact, the circumstances modi- 

 fying them, the kind and amount of action presented, the real 

 or probable result, we shall find that the first impressions are 

 scarcely fit for the foundation of a judgment, and that the 

 second thoughts will be best. For the acquirement of a good 

 condition of mind in this respect, the thoughts should be 

 trained to a habit of clear and precise formation, so that vivid 

 and distinct impressions of the matter in hand, its circumstances 

 and consequences, may remain. 



Before we 'proceed to consider any question involving phy- 

 sical principles, we should set out with clear ideas of the 

 naturally possible and impossible. There are many subjects 

 uniting more or less of the most sure and valuable investiga- 



* See pp. 446, 460. 



f Newton's Works. Horsley's Edition, 1783, iv. p. 438 ; or the Third 

 Letter to Bentley. 



