OBSERVATION, VALUE OF
Louis Agassiz, after he had spent fifteen years as a teacher of science in this country, when asked what was the best result of his efforts, replied: “I have educated five observers,” referring to the five senses. He claimed that the noblest profession in the world was that of teacher; and that especially in science, the teacher’s most important work was to train the student in habits of observation. Lowell called it a divine art—that of seeing what others only look at.
Educate the five senses and you make them fit teachers to educate you.
(2226)
OBSTACLES
Apparently some people are ignorant, and others have forgotten, that we have no sense that is capable of discriminating between high and low speed, or even between motion and rest, except by noting the usual accompaniments of motion, such as the apparent movement of surrounding objects, the resistance of the atmosphere, or the jolting due to obstacles in the path. If our surroundings move with us and the motion is smooth, our methods of detecting it fail. Thus, we can not feel the great velocity with which the earth is moving through space. In like manner, a train on a rough road seems to be going faster at forty miles an hour than one on a smooth road at sixty. The sensations of high-speed travel depend largely, therefore, on the conditions of that travel.
In the same way our moral progress can only be measured by the obstacles we meet and overcome.
(2227)
See [Happiness]; [Rebuffs a Stimulant].
Obstacles Overcome—See [Energy, Indomitable].