An essay on the culture of the observing powers of children : especially in connection with the study of botany / by Eliza A. Youmans ; edited ... by Joseph Payne.

  • Eliza Ann Youmans
Date:
1872
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the culture of the observing powers of children : especially in connection with the study of botany / by Eliza A. Youmans ; edited ... by Joseph Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it is not only that the skilful physician depends on it for the correctness of his diagnosis, and that to the good engineer it is so important, that some years in the workshop are prescribed for him ; but we may see that the philosopher also is funda- mentally one who observes relationships of things which others had overlooked, and that the poet, too, is one who sees the fine facts in Nature which all recognise when pointed out, but did not before remark. Nothing requires more to be insisted on than that vivid and complete impressions are all-essential. No sound fabric of wisdom can be woven out of a rotten, raw material.’ It needs hardly to be repeated, that observation is the starting-point of knowledge, and the basis of judgment and inductive reasoning. In the chaos of opinions among men, the conflicts are usually on the data, which have not been observed with sufficient care. Dispute is endless until the facts are known, and when this happens, dispute is generally ended. Dr. Cullen, long ago, remarked: ‘ There are more false facts in the world than false hypotheses to explain them ; there is, in truth, nothing that men seem to admit so lightly as an asserted fact.’ > Children should1, therefore, be taught to see for themselves, and to think for themselves on the basis of what they have seen.1 Iu this way only can they learn to weigh the true value 1 ‘ Nature speaks only to those who have ears to hear. But, under the quickening influence of the educator’s mind, the dead starts up into life, tile obscure is flushed with light. These transformations are among the common results of good education. It is then the aim of the instruction 1 am recommending, to make all Nature minister to the awakening of the child’s intellectual life, by bringing his mind into direct contact with the material world. This direct contact, except to a limited extent, does not take place spontaneously, but must be secured by the conscious action
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