A little more on seeing

 Here’s the heart of John Burroughs’s essay “The Art of Seeing Things”:

The science of anything may be taught or acquired by study; the art of it comes by practice and inspiration.

Taking walks along the creek to see what’s there is a way of life, rather than a scientific study. It’s the same with reading good books, listening to music, appreciating art.

Burroughs takes those walks for the love of it, the pleasure of it.

I take pleasure in noting the minute things about me. … One seldom takes a walk without encountering some of this fine print on nature’s page. 

 And, as he puts it:

What we love to do, that we do well.

He makes an interesting point about naturalists: Some are good observers and some are not. Some people who are interested in nature can’t wait to get off the trail and get to the library to look up the answer to the question that’s puzzling them. Others take pleasure in seeing and investigating for themselves.

Burroughs also noticed that some naturalists have a limited range of what they love — and thus what they notice.

If we think of birds, we shall see birds wherever we go; if we think arrowheads, as Thoreau did, we shall pick up arrowheads in every field.

They make easy targets, those bird watchers who are obsessed with their lifetime lists of species and rush from one sighting to another. But Burroughs has his finger on the problem: it’s not the interest, but the limited range of interest.

• Source: John Burroughs, “The Art of Seeing,” is in American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau; The Library of America, 2008, pp. 145-59. I found it in Library of America’s Story of the Week archives:

https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2012/07/the-art-of-seeing-things.html