How to Observe
“The observer of men and manners stands as much in need of intellectual preparation as any other student. This is not, indeed, generally supposed, and a multitude of travellers act as if it were not true. Of the large number of tourists who annually sail from our ports, there is probably not one who would dream of pretending to make observations on any subject of physical inquiry, of which he did not understand even the principles. If, on his return from the Mediterranean, the unprepared traveller was questioned about the geology of Corsica or the public buildings of Palermo, he would reply, ‘Oh, I can tell you nothing about that; I never studied geology ; I know nothing about architecture.’ But few or none make the same avowal about the morals and manners of a nation. Every man seems to imagine that he can understand men at a glance; he supposes that it is enough to be among them to know what they are doing; he thinks that eyes, ears, and memory are enough for morals, though they would not qualify him for botanical or statistical observation; he pronounces confidently upon the merits and social condition of the nations among whom he has travelled; no misgiving ever prompts him to say, ‘I can give you little general information about the people I have been seeing; I have not studied the principles of morals; I am no judge of national manners.’”
— Harriet Martineau, How to Observe (1838)
