270 PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



133. (n) Relevant Observation. To commence seriously 

 the work of observation in any particular instance without 

 making preliminary observations, would render observation a 

 very circumlocutory proceeding. In examining an object, to 

 be obliged to valuate the influence of the stars, the light, the 

 temperature, the atmosphere, the dust, the surrounding objects, 

 the noises in the neighbourhood, the distant past, and the 

 thousand other latencies, would be disheartening. Yet the 

 greatest circumspection is requisite that no relevant facts are 

 passed over or classed as irrelevant, as, for instance, the direct 

 influence of sunspots on magnetic storms, of the sun and moon 

 on the tides, the sun on the leaves of plants, the times of day 

 and night on leaves and flowers, and the time of year on growth. 

 The attempt to reach the absolute zero of temperature and to 

 produce the highest possible degrees of heat is, for example, 

 of far-reaching importance, but such problems should be treated 

 separately, and not in connection with every enquiry. 



134. (o) Rational Observation. Not only should the ir- 

 relevant environment be left unexamined, but sundry features, 

 as the precise configuration of an ordinary object, and hosts 

 of other aspects, should be generally disregarded. A danger 

 exists here that we shall consider as irrational what is rational ; 

 practice, however, will reduce the danger to a minimum. To 

 endeavour to provide the exact configuration of every leaf, or 

 the exact drawing of the veins in each leaf, would be irrational, 

 and yet even of these some very definite conception, even of 

 a quantitative and dynamic character, should be supplied. 1 For 

 similar reasons, we only study objects so far as they relate to 

 a particular investigation. (See 170.) 



135. (p) Rapidity and Resourcefulness. Observation should 

 be rapid and the observer resourceful. Action should not be 

 paralysed by inaccuracy, by blundering awkwardness, by per- 

 sistent speculation, by overcautiousness or vacillation, or by 

 lack of method or resourcefulness. The immediate task needs 

 to be clearly conceived and energetically executed, without any 

 hitch or superfluous labour. 



He who is intelligent, has an unmistakable desire to effect 

 his purpose expeditiously, and, if trained and practised, will 



the kangaroo, which are so well fitted for bounding over the open plains, 

 those of the climbing, leaf-eating koala, equally well fitted for grasping the 

 branches of trees, those of the ground-dwelling, insect or root eating, 

 bandicots, and those of some other Australian marsupials, should all be 

 constructed on the same extraordinary type, namely with the bones of the 

 second and third digits extremely slender and enveloped within the same 

 skin, so that they appear like a single toe furnished with two claws. Not- 

 withstanding this similarity of pattern, it is obvious that the hind-feet of 

 these several animals are used for as widely different purposes as it is 

 possible to conceive." (Origin of Species, Chapter 14, Section "Morphology".) 

 Josiah Royce, in Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, vol. 1, 1913, deals with 

 the nature of a "fair sample". 



