STRAIGHT SEEING AND THINKING 



of actual observation he is telling the truth only 

 when he tells the thing as it really is, reports the 

 habits and behavior of the animals as they really 

 are. What do we mean by powers of observation 

 but the power to see the thing as it is — to see the 

 truth? An opulent imagination cannot make up 

 for feeble powers of observation. The effect the 

 fact observed has upon you, what you make of it, 

 what it signifies to you — that is another matter. 

 Here interpretation comes in, and on this line you 

 have the field all to yourself. I may think your 

 interpretation absurd, but I shall not question your 

 veracity or honesty of purpose. We are very likely 

 to differ in taste, in opinions about this and that, 

 in religion, politics, art, but we must agree upon 

 facts. Unless there is some chance that men can 

 see and report accurately, what becomes of the 

 value of human testimony as given by eye-witnesses 

 on the witness stand ? Things do fall out so and 

 so, or they fall out otherwise ; it is not a matter of 

 imagination or of temperament in the beholder, 

 but a matter of accurate seeing. In getting at the 

 value of a man's testimony we may have to take 

 into account his excitable or his phlegmatic tem- 

 perament and the seductive power of his imagina- 

 tion, and eliminate them as so much dross in a 

 metal. Eye-witnesses generally differ; we must 

 reconcile the differences and sift out the facts. 

 The animal-story writers, such as Mr. Roberts 

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