Observations
The value of securing material by observation is apparent at first glance. That which you have experienced you know. That which you have seen with your own eyes you can report correctly. That which has happened to you you can relate with the aspect of absolute truth. That which you have done you can teach others to do. That which has touched you you can explain correctly. That which you know to be the fact is proof against all attack.
These are the apparent advantages of knowledge gained at first hand. The faculty of accurate observation is one of the most satisfying that can enter into a person's mental equipment. It can be trained, broadened, and made more and more accurate. In some trades and professions it is an indispensable part of one's everyday ability. The faculty may be easily developed by exercise and test for accuracy.
"It can be trained, broadened, and made more and more accurate"
Everyone acknowledges the weight and significance of material gained by observation. In America especially we accord attention and regard to the reports and accounts made by men who have done things, the men who have experienced the adventures they relate. There is such a vividness, a reality, a conviction about these personal utterances that we must listen respectfully and applaud sincerely. Magazines and newspapers offer hundreds of such articles for avid readers. Hundreds of books each year are based upon such material.
With all its many advantages the field of observation is limited. Not every person can experience or see all he is interested in and wants to talk about. We must choose presidents but we cannot observe the candidates themselves and their careers. We must have opinions about the League of Nations, the Mexican situation, the radical labor movements, the changing taxes, but we cannot observe all phases of these absorbing topics. If we restrict speeches to only what we can observe we shall all be uttering merely trivial personalities based upon no general knowledge and related to none of the really important things in the universe.
"If we restrict speeches to only what we can observe we shall all be uttering merely trivial personalities based upon no general knowledge and related to none of the really important things in the universe."
Nor is it always true that the person who does a thing can report it clearly and accurately. Ask a woman or girl how she hemstitches a handkerchief, or a boy how he swims or throws a curve, and note the involved and inaccurate accounts. If you doubt this, explain one of these to the class.
It is not easy to describe exactly what one has seen, mainly because people do not see accurately. People usually see what they want to see, what they are predisposed to see. Witnesses in court, testifying upon oath concerning an accident, usually produce as many different versions as there are pairs of eyes. Books upon psychology report many enlightening and amusing cases of this defect of accurate observation in people.
"People usually see what they want to see, what they are predisposed to see."
The two negative aspects of material secured in this first manner—
1) limited range of observation,
2) inaccuracy of observation—placed beside the advantages already listed will clearly indicate in what subjects and circumstances this method should be relied upon for securing material for speeches.