Part 38 (1/2)

When he once got a taste of the power and helpfulness which comes from the study of real life, when he saactual life stories were as they were being lived than anything he could get out of any book except the Bible, he was never again satisfied without illustrations fresh from the lives of the people he met every day

Beecher believed a serreat o aith a new determination to make a little more of themselves, to do their work a little better, to be a little more conscientious, a little more helpful, a little reat observer was not only a student of human nature, but of all nature as well I watched hi in the beauties of the randeur and sublireat White Mountains, which he loved so well, and where he spent many summers

He always preached on Sunday at the hotel where he stayed, and great crowds ca in his sermons that appealed to the best in everyone who heard him They were full of pictures of beautiful landscapes, seascapes, and entrancing sunsets The clouds, the rain, the sunshi+ne, and the storm were reflected in them The flowers, the fields, the brooks, the record of creation iled with the ferryboats, the steam-cars, orphans, calamities, accidents, all sorts of experiences and bits of life Happiness and sunshi+ne, birds and trees alternated with the direst poverty in the slums, people on sick beds and death beds, in hospitals and in funeral processions; life pictures of successes and failures, of the discouraged, the despondent, the cheerful, the optimist and the pessimist, passed in quick succession and staer hearers

Wherever he went, Beecher continued his study of life through observation Nothing else was half so interesting To hiht values uponin theenuine and the false, to be able to pierce their arded as one of a clergyassiz, who could see wonders in the scale of a fish or a grain of sand, Beecher had an eye like the glass of a s He could see beauty and harliness and discord, because he read the hidden s Like Ruskin, he could see the marvelous philosophy, the Divine plan, in the lowliest object He could feel the Divine presence in all created things

”An exhaustive observation,” says Herbert Spencer, ”is an elereat success” There is no position in life where a trained eye can not be reat success asset

”Let's leave it to Osler,” said the physicians at a consultation where a precious life hung by a thread Then the great Johns Hopkins professor examined the patient He did not ask questions His experienced eye drew a conclusion frohtest evidence He watched the patient closely; hiswas a telltale of the patient's condition, which he read as an open book He saw symptoms which others could not see

He recommended a certain operation, which was performed, and the patient recovered The reed with hinose a case through symptoms and indications which escapeto leave the whole decision to hi X-ray er tips so farowth or displacement so small that it would escape ordinary notice

The pohich inheres in a trained faculty of observation is priceless The education which Beecher got through observation, by keeping his eyes, his ears, and his reat deal e education He was not a great scholar; he did not stand nearly as high in college as some of his classmates whom he far outstripped in life, but his s

Lincoln was another reh reflection upon what he observed Hisof everything that careat interrogation point before hiive up its secret before he would let it go He had a passion for knowledge; he yearned to know thethe common, everyday occurrences

Ruskin says: ”Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think; but thousands can think for one who can see”

I once traveled abroad with two youngsee

The day after leaving a city, the latter could scarcely recall anything of interest, while the forh the eye Things so trivial that his coreat deal to hiht hoof value

While visiting Luther Burbank, the wizard horticulturist, in his faarden, recently, I was s He has observed the habits of fruits and flowers to such purpose that he has performed miracles in the fields of floriculture and horticulture Stunted and ugly flowers and fruits, under the eye of this e W Cortelyou was a stenographer not long ago Many people thought he would rerapher, but he always kept his eyes open He was after an opportunity Pro hi for the next step above hi things quickly, of absorbing knowledge, he would never have advanced

The youth ould get on must keep his eyes open, his ears open, his mind open HeTurk, who has been in this country only a year, yet he speaks our language fluently He has studied the reat deal of our history, and much about our resources and opportunities He said that when he landed in New York it see every block of our streets than he had ever seen in the whole of Turkey And he could not understand the lethargy, the lack of a men to our rowing He is always accue of every kind He does not merely look with his eyes He sees with them He keeps his ears open He keeps his mind open to all that is new and fresh and helpful

The s; they just _look_ at them

The power of keen observation is indicative of a superior mentality; for it is the mind, not the optic nerve, that really sees

Most people are too lazy, s carefully Close observation is a powerfulover theopinions, esti

Careless, indifferent observation does not go back of the eye If the e is not clean-cut, and is not carried with force and distinctness enough to the brain to enable it to get at the truth and draw accurate conclusions

The observing faculty is particularly susceptible to culture, and is capable of becohty power Few people realize what a treh themachine, the telephone, the telescope, the reat invention of the past or present, every triu machinery, every discovery in science and art, is due to the trained power of seeing things

The whole secret of a richly stored htfulness Indifference, apathy, mental lassitude and laziness are fatal to all effective observation

It does not take long to develop a habit of attention that seizes the salient points of things

It is a splendid drill for children to send them out on the street, or out of doors anywhere, just for the purpose of finding out how iven time, and how closely they can observe them Just the effort to try to see howback is a splendid drill Children often become passionately fond of this exercise, and it becos equal, it is the keen observer who gets ahead Go into a place of business with the eye of an eagle Let nothing escape you