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would certainly be more ignorant , and less accessible to improvement . A greater mind does not observe less , but more ; and having a wider choice of important objects , is at liberty to dismiss those which are frivolous and familiar , when their value has once been dul y appreciated . The operation of this faculty is partial in every mind , and is modified by the character , intellectual and moral , of the individual by whom it is exerted ; and if its exercise could become unlimited and universal , its perfection would
imply the perfection of the whole intellectual and moral constitution- Then no influence would be wasted , and no clouds would intervene to obscure the emanations of truth which we may hereafter perceive to beam from every object . But at present every mind is in part blind and indolent , and therefore the faculty of observation varies in its operation in every individual . In
proportion as the appetite for knowledge is healthy or depraved , strong or weak , will the aliment presented to it be salutary or hurtful , abundant or scanty . Each provides for himself the supply he needs ; the philosopher will gather philosophy , the tale-bearer will gather materials for scandal , the artist will collect subjects for his pencil , and the dramatist for his pen , from the new scenes into which each is introduced . The moralist will discern
moral relations in all things , and every occurrence in the complicated movements of society will serve as an illustration of some favourite truth ; while the man whose whole soul is animated by piety , will " see God in every thing , and all in God . " —We remember being struck by the difference in the accounts of a grand ceremonial , given by two observers of different habits of mind ; and we were thence led to imagine how great a variety of description would be afforded if twenty narrators had told the story instead of two .
The ceremony was the benediction of the Pope at the conclusion of the holy week at Rome . What a field is here afforded for a variety of observation ! The architect would concentrate his attention on St . Peter's itself , regardless of the countless multitudes which would afford a subject of observation to the statistical inquirer . Some would look on the whole as idle pageantry , while others would await in breathless awe the appearance of the Pontiff . The natives would be engaged in remarking the peculiarities of the foreigners , and the foreigners of the natives . Many might truly moum * to behold
the numerous victims of a gross superstition , while some were actually engaged in computing the value of the fine horses in the carriage of the Duke of Sussex , which were driven by himself on the occasion . —The most comprehensive mind among the observers was undoubtedly that ( if such there was ) on which the fewest circumstances were lost— which could , while noticing the peculiarities of the thronging multitudes of various nations , the marble edifices , the train of Cardinals , the appearance and gestures of the Pontiff , likewise remark the relation of mind to mind amid these countless
thousands of beings , the darkness of some , the comparative illumination of others , and the connexion of all with the presiding Spirit which called them into being . This habit of partial observation has been often encouraged from the idea that it is the best way to attain excellence in a particular pursuit ; but its consequences ( wholly escaped by none ) are highly injurious to the mind .
To excel in any particular pursuit should ever be a subordinate object to the general improvement of the intellectual constitution ; and this object itself is eventually best promoted by encouraging the development of every power we possess . Our capacity of observation should therefore be perpetually enlarging , while the habit is strengthening . For this purpose , a classification
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Essays on the Art of 77 * inking * 74 J
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1829, page 747, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2578/page/3/
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