Chapter 29

Experience

Experience as a source of knowledge and skill; experiment; learning from life.

761 passages · 202 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts

Experience, in the broad sense these books give it, covers several things. It is the stock of remembered particulars from which men gather prudence. It is the first-hand observation that a traveller or physician sets against report and authority. It is the hard instruction of suffering and practice. And it is the deliberate trial of nature that the moderns call experiment. The idea is great for the Harvard Classics because nearly every other question of knowledge passes through it: what we can know of causes, of other men, of God, of beauty and of duty. It also divides the authors sharply. To some, experience is the mother of all the sciences; to others, it is a teacher that proves nothing necessary and may dupe us to the end.

The most economical definition is Hobbes’s. Experience is much memory, or memory of many things¹, and from it comes prudence, the art of guessing by signs^2,3. Reason, by contrast, is not gotten by experience only⁴. Because prudence is simply accumulated memory, Hobbes thinks men of equal age and application are nearly equal in it^5,6. Hume extends the point downward. The child learns to avoid the candle flame, and old animals show a sagacity born of long observation^7,8. Yet Hume also suggests that the common distinction between reason and experience is superficial, since every argument ends in general principles known only by observation⁹. Here a first fault line appears. Is experience a lower faculty that reason surpasses, or is it the ground on which reason itself stands?

A long line of writers sets experience against books and schools. Montaigne treats every object of daily life as a book, and holds that judging and speaking are learned by exercise¹⁰. Descartes abandons letters for the book of the world, judging the practical reasoning of men in their affairs truer than the speculations of the study¹¹. Harvey learns and teaches anatomy from dissection, not from the positions of philosophers¹². Among the moderns the theme grows almost evangelical. For Channing the laborer’s own life is a volume more instructive than any book¹³. Emerson calls life our dictionary¹⁴ and wants science taught by the spark and the planet rather than by lectures¹⁵. Newman holds that political wisdom requires firsthand familiarity with business and persons¹⁶. Dana’s ship’s cook rebukes the college boy’s reasoning with the sea-time he has served himself¹⁷. Bacon strikes the balance most exactly: studies must be bounded by experience, and the wisdom of using them comes from observation, not from study¹⁸.

The same opposition governs speculation and a priori theory. Bacon wants philosophy to stop floating in air and rest on experience well examined and weighed¹⁹. Pascal argues that the ancients erred from lack of experience, not weakness of reasoning, so the telescope corrects them without insulting them²⁰. Locke prefers Boyle’s rational experiments to speculative systems²¹. Emerson finds the English temper made of distrust of theory and surrender to fact²². He also reports that Kepler and Euler held experience must follow the laws of the mind, which the English repudiate²³. The empiricist doctrine proper is stated by Hume: all the materials of thinking derive from outward or inward sentiment^24,25. Mill’s Logic carries it on against the intuitionists²⁶, and Mill values the school of Experience and Association because it explains feelings by circumstances, as reformers require²⁷. Rejoinders are not wanting. Rousseau’s vicar answers that universal moral agreement contradicts the claim that the mind holds only what experience instils²⁸. Schiller makes the unity of the mind a condition of the very possibility of experience²⁹.

The sharpest limits are drawn by Kant. Experience can never certify that any action sprang purely from duty³⁰. To derive duty from experience hands victory to the cynics who see self-love everywhere³¹. And no examples can furnish apodictic law^32,33. Freedom itself cannot be proved from experiences of human nature³⁴. Schiller makes the parallel claim for beauty. Experience shows only individuals and cannot be the tribunal of what beauty is³⁵; it shows that beauty exists, not how it is possible³⁶. Burke, by contrast, insists that a sound theory of the beautiful must rest on experience of common things³⁷, and he faults rival theories for not consulting it³⁸. Hume grounds the rules of art on general observation of what pleases³⁹.

Hume, however, also raises the most famous doubt about experience. Past experience informs us only of past objects, so why extend it to the future⁴⁰? Any probable argument for doing so would be circular⁴¹. The extension is made by custom, not by reasoning^42,43. Even after a thousand experiments we cannot justify believing the stone will fall⁴⁴. Hobbes had already called presumption of the future uncertain⁴⁵. Other writers stress the narrowness of experience rather than its logic. Pascal shows the ancients denying a vacuum only because their experiments had never shown one⁴⁶, and he laments that experience dupes us from misfortune to misfortune⁴⁷. Lyell observes that land-dwellers see only decay and so misjudge the processes of change⁴⁸. Mill adds that experience does not correct error without discussion to interpret it⁴⁹.

Hume nonetheless makes experience the sole guide in matters of fact. Adam could not have inferred that water would suffocate him⁵⁰, and every law of nature is known by observed conjunction^51,52. Berkeley says the same of perception: we learn by experience which ideas will follow, so that a man born blind and given sight would have no notion of distance^53,54. Human conduct is known in the same way. Long acquaintance with men lets us infer motives⁵⁵, and we predict a friend’s conduct, or the fate of a purse left on the pavement, almost as surely as the motions of bodies⁵⁶. Pliny’s long service as advocate and judge had taught him how slight things decide⁵⁷. From this Hume draws his argument on testimony. Our credit in witnesses rests wholly on experience of their veracity⁵⁸, so a reported miracle sets experience against experience, and uniform experience amounts to a full proof^59,60. Darwin practises the gentler version, weighing a strange story by partial ocular proof and corroborating witnesses⁶¹.

Experience also names the school of life. Paré learned the treatment of gunshot wounds by chance and practice, not by books⁶². Dana holds that no man knows sailors unless he has lived among them⁶³, and his landsman’s helplessness amid unintelligible orders⁶⁴ shows what the Hippocratic oath calls the bad treasure of inexperience⁶⁵. Emerson makes action essential to the scholar: “only so much do I know as I have lived”⁶⁶. Suffering teaches what precept cannot. Burns finds in losses and crosses severe lessons in self-knowledge⁶⁷. Bunyan’s Christiana says none can know the Valley until they pass through it⁶⁸. Mill observes that proverbs are truly understood only when painful experience makes them real⁶⁹. Don Quixote calls proverbs sentences drawn from experience, “the universal mother of sciences”⁷⁰. The authority of the seasoned is a common theme, yet it is qualified. Bacon warns that the experience of age misleads in new things⁷¹. Milton’s Satan tempts Christ with the claim that private life lacks the best school of experience⁷². Hume grants that an entirely unexperienced reasoner would be no reasoner at all⁷³.

Travel and witness form a further strand. Bacon counts travel a part of experience for the elder and wants it recorded in diaries⁷⁴. Milton makes travel the means of enlarging practical knowledge⁷⁵. Locke complains that youths who travel under governors make no observations of their own⁷⁶. Tennyson’s Ulysses turns all this into a figure: experience is an arch through which the untravelled world gleams⁷⁷. Herodotus distinguishes what he saw from what he heard^78,79. Harrison sets his own examination of an adder against Nicander⁸⁰. Darwin weighs a load himself to test an exaggerated account⁸¹. Raleigh relies on repeated assays by London refiners⁸² and warns that men without experience mistake glistering stones for ore⁸³.

In practical and professional affairs the same appeal becomes evidence. Smith argues from observed prices, wages and failed companies^84,85,86. He also notes that farming demands knowledge books cannot capture⁸⁷. Cellini consults the Paris founders, each party trusting its own practice and predicting the other’s failure⁸⁸. Darwin credits miners’ wanderings with finding veins⁸⁹. In medicine, observation overturns authority. Paré’s patients refute de Vigo⁹⁰. Bacon holds a man’s own observation of what helps him the best physic⁹¹. Holmes gathers practitioners’ cases against sceptics who relied on solitary experience^92,93.

Politics stages the open controversy. Burke calls the science of government experimental, not a priori, and urges caution before pulling down institutions whose effects are slow⁹⁴. He mocks the revolutionaries who abjure the “heresies of experience”⁹⁵ and likens their schemes to empirics experimenting on the state⁹⁶. Old establishments, he argues, are tried by their effects, and theories are drawn from them⁹⁷. Sydney Smith turns the argument around. If experience is the mother of wisdom, the later generation is the experienced one, and the ancestors were young^98,99. Machiavelli offers knowledge of great men from long experience¹⁰⁰. Mill learned the difficulties of public affairs in office¹⁰¹. Lowell calls precedent embodied experience¹⁰², while Marshall would leave the legislature free to avail itself of experience¹⁰³. Mill moves the question into private life. He calls for experiments of living¹⁰⁴, treats others’ experience as presumptive evidence only¹⁰⁵, and answers objectors who say experience has already settled moral truths¹⁰⁶.

In letters, Johnson finds that Shakespeare grew wise by observation, since books cannot confer vigilance¹⁰⁷. Goethe insists that pure observation is rare because we confuse sensation and opinion with experience¹⁰⁸. Bagehot charges that the ascetic, untempted, cannot comprehend temptation¹⁰⁹. Thoreau prizes the tan and callus of experience¹¹⁰. Hume makes taste a matter of practice and comparison¹¹¹, tested by the consent of ages¹¹². Religious writers claim a knowledge of their own kind. Penn knows God by felt mercy, not by report¹¹³. Luther says faith cannot be written of without tasting it under tribulation¹¹⁴. Emerson’s true preacher converts life into truth¹¹⁵, though he also denies that experience can silence man’s great hopes¹¹⁶.

Finally, experiment, which is experience made deliberate. Bacon criticizes aimless trying and the pursuit of experiments of fruit rather than of light¹¹⁷. He holds that the sense judges the experiment and the experiment the thing¹¹⁸, and he wants experiments reported with their manner so that others may check them¹¹⁹. Descartes needs experiments to choose among the many ways an effect might be deduced¹²⁰, but he finds others’ experiments ill-described or falsified by their principles¹²¹. Pascal makes experiments the sole principles of physics¹²². The practice fulfils the program. Harvey’s vivisections and ligatures overturn received opinion^123,124,125. Jenner inoculates with cowpox and then with smallpox matter¹²⁶, using a control¹²⁷. Pasteur’s sealed flasks show life without air^128,129. Darwin floats seeds in sea water¹³⁰ and grows 537 plants from a cup of pond mud¹³¹. Faraday urges his audiences to repeat his experiments at home^132,133. The method also breeds its own critique of bad trials. Pasteur traces Liebig’s failure to contamination¹³⁴, and Darwin weighs Gärtner’s conflicting results^135,136.

What remains open is the question the books keep returning to: whether experience, however refined, can reach necessity, duty or the ideal, or whether, as Hume and Kant from opposite sides suggest, something not given by experience must vouch for what experience teaches.

Passages cited (136)

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 314–315read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 320–321read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 335read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 334read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 351read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 387read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 317read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 371–372read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 322read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of Children, Vol. 32, p. 37read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences, Vol. 34, p. 10read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, Vol. 38, p. 62–64read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring Classes, Vol. 28, p. 337–339read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar, Vol. 5, p. 13–14read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England Reformers, Vol. 5, p. 256read · scan
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, Vol. 28, p. 34read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, Vol. 23, p. 42read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 120–122read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, Vol. 39, p. 117–119read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor Works, Vol. 48, p. 441–443read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. 37, p. 165read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 355–356read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Vol. 5, p. 442–443read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 300–301read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 301–302read · scan
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, Vol. 25, p. 139read · scan
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, Vol. 25, p. 167–168read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, Vol. 34, p. 272–273read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, Vol. 32, p. 261–262read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 318read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 319read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 320read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 337read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 357read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, Vol. 32, p. 237–238read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, Vol. 32, p. 249read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Vol. 24, p. 47read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Vol. 24, p. 83–85read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste, Vol. 27, p. 206read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 312read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 314–315read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 321read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 329read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 417–418read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 321read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor Works, Vol. 48, p. 443read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Vol. 48, p. 136read · scan
Sir Charles Lyell, Prejudices Which Have Retarded the Progress of Geology, Vol. 38, p. 393read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 214read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 307–308read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 308–309read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 339read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, Vol. 37, p. 221–222read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, Vol. 37, p. 224read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 354read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 360read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of Pliny, Vol. 9, p. 204read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 376–377read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 378read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 379read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 121read · scan
Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse Places, Vol. 38, p. 11–12read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, Vol. 23, p. 53read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, Vol. 23, p. 8read · scan
Hippocrates, The Law of Hippocrates, Vol. 38, p. 4read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar, Vol. 5, p. 11–12read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 67–68read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, Vol. 15, p. 246read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 237read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part I, Vol. 14, p. 165read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 104read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Regained, Vol. 4, p. 384read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 323–324read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 45–46read · scan
John Milton, Tractate on Education, Vol. 3, p. 245read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. 37, p. 179–180read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Vol. 42, p. 976–977read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 48read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of Egypt, Vol. 33, p. 73–74read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan England, Vol. 35, p. 342–343read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 344–345read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 305read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of Guiana, Vol. 33, p. 356read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 59read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 77read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 459read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 129read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Vol. 31, p. 288–289read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 321read · scan
Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse Places, Vol. 38, p. 11read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 81read · scan
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, Vol. 38, p. 223read · scan
Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, Vol. 38, p. 235–236read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 198read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 346read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 298–299read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 304–305read · scan
Sydney Smith, Fallacies of Anti-Reformers, Vol. 27, p. 226read · scan
Sydney Smith, Fallacies of Anti-Reformers, Vol. 27, p. 226–227read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 5read · scan
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, Vol. 25, p. 56read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 28, p. 439read · scan
John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of Maryland, Vol. 43, p. 218read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 250read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 252read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 275–276read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare, Vol. 39, p. 229–230read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Introduction to the Propyläen, Vol. 39, p. 252–253read · scan
Walter Bagehot, John Milton, Vol. 28, p. 171read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, Walking, Vol. 28, p. 398read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste, Vol. 27, p. 211–212read · scan
David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste, Vol. 27, p. 210–211read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, Vol. 1, p. 363–364read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty, Vol. 36, p. 344–345read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Vol. 5, p. 34read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-Soul, Vol. 5, p. 133read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, Vol. 39, p. 121read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, Vol. 39, p. 135–136read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio Magna, Vol. 39, p. 139read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences, Vol. 34, p. 51read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the Sciences, Vol. 34, p. 55–57read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor Works, Vol. 48, p. 440–441read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, Vol. 38, p. 75read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, Vol. 38, p. 109read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, Vol. 38, p. 121read · scan
Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, Vol. 38, p. 156–157read · scan
Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, Vol. 38, p. 160–161read · scan
Louis Pasteur, The Physiological Theory of Fermentation, Vol. 38, p. 278read · scan
Louis Pasteur, The Physiological Theory of Fermentation, Vol. 38, p. 318read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Vol. 11, p. 386–388read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Vol. 11, p. 411read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a Candle, Vol. 30, p. 119read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a Candle, Vol. 30, p. 114read · scan
Louis Pasteur, The Physiological Theory of Fermentation, Vol. 38, p. 356read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Vol. 11, p. 286read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Vol. 11, p. 287read · scan

Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.

1The nature of experience and its place among sources of knowledge
2The limits and critique of experience as a ground of knowledge
3Experience as the ground of belief in causes, testimony and human nature
4Learning from life: the school of hardship, action and example
5Travel, observation and firsthand witness
6Experience in practical, economic and professional affairs
7Experience in politics, society and the conduct of life
8Experience in art, letters and the life of the mind
9Experiment as method in natural science

1.The nature of experience and its place among sources of knowledge

Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32

p. 299Philosophy is empirical when based on experience, pure when derived from a priori principles.read · scan

1a.Experience defined as memory and the source of prudence

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 314–315Defines experience as much memory, or memory of many things.read · scan
p. 320–321Those with more experience have more signs to guess by and are more prudent than clever newcomers.read · scan
p. 334Prudence comes from experience, whereas reason is not gotten by experience only.read · scan
p. 335Much experience yields prudence.read · scan
p. 351Prudence depends on experience, which among equals in age differs in occasions rather than quantity.read · scan
p. 387Prudence is experience, equally gained by those who apply themselves equally.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 129–130Instinct and experience instruct man about his nature.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 341–342Experience is a safe guide; practical head is great happiness in business.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 317Even infants and brutes learn qualities of objects from experience, such as a child avoiding a candle flame.read · scan
p. 371–372Animals gain knowledge of objects and effects from observation; old ones show sagacity born of long experience.read · scan

1b.Experience versus book learning and authority

Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7

p. 267–268Those who trust their own fancies rather than the experience of others fall into danger.read · scan

Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32

p. 37Every action or object in daily life serves as a book; skills like judging and speaking are learned by exercise.read · scan
p. 40–43Observing men in every calling, and the folly of others, serves as instruction.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 313Experience refutes the fable that short nights prevent ripening, as Rhenish wines show.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 332Leonela claims her knowledge of love comes from experience rather than hearsay.read · scan
p. 497The curate and goatherd hold that woods breed learned men and that rustics have experience and philosophers among them.read · scan

Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27

p. 14–15The historian claims old-aged experience beyond the philosopher, offering the experience of many ages.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 120–122Studies must be bounded by experience; the wisdom of using them comes from observation, not from study itself.read · scan

William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38

p. 62–64He learns and teaches anatomy from dissections and the fabric of nature, not from books or philosophers' positions.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 10He left letters for the book of the world, travel and varied experience, judging practical reasoning truer than speculation.read · scan
p. 12–13Descartes holds that a sensible man's inferences from his own experience beat bookish learned opinion, and resolves to sweep away inherited opinions and test them by reason.read · scan

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3

p. 287His objection comes from common sense and observation, not from authors.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 90Reason and experience show such arguments arouse contempt.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 408–409Pascal claims his judgment comes from long experience of books and persons.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 23Locke, not finding the cure in books, reasons by rational steps to change the body.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 134Franklin draws on reading of a former defeat in the Iroquois country to foresee peril.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19

p. 81–84'Grey is all theory, green the golden tree of life' sets lived experience above book learning.read · scan

William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28

p. 337Truths gained from experience and reflection outweigh learning from books; events stirring thought elevate the mind.read · scan
p. 337–339Highest sources of truth are inward and outward experience; the laborer's own life is a volume more instructive than any book.read · scan

John Henry Newman, The Idea of a UniversityVol. 28

p. 34Political wisdom comes from firsthand familiarity with business, persons and events that reading newspapers cannot supply.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5

p. 13–14Life is our dictionary; action gives the vocabulary and richest wisdom, better than colleges and books.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5

p. 256Science lessons should be experimental: seeing the planet beats a course on astronomy, the electric spark beats theory.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 41–42The cook claims the best argument is experience, what he has seen himself, against Dana's reasoning.read · scan
p. 42Cook appeals to long seafaring experience over book learning: 'You wait till you've been to sea as long as I have.'read · scan

Thomas Henry Huxley, Science and CultureVol. 28

p. 220–221Grasp of principles comes only through personal experience of observation and reasoning.read · scan

1c.Experience versus speculation and a priori theory

Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39

p. 117–119Philosophy should cease floating in air and rest on experience of every kind, well examined and weighed.read · scan
p. 126He dwells among the facts of nature rather than spinning thought from within.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 441–443The ancients erred from lack of experience, not weak reasoning; the telescope and comets correct them.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 151Whether memorizers' parts really improve is to be judged by experience and observation, not custom.read · scan
p. 165Rational experiments and observations, like Boyle's, are preferred over speculative systems.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 343Undertake no experiment in speculation that is not true in art; share costs of experiments.read · scan

George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37

p. 249Ordinary practice of life needs no nicety of speculative knowledge.read · scan
p. 259–260Philonous's former belief in matter rested on prejudice; his present one rests on examined evidence.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 322Hume argues the distinction between reason and experience is superficial; all arguments end in general principles known only by observation.read · scan
p. 414Action and the occupations of common life subvert Pyrrhonism; real objects and passions dissolve sceptical principles.read · scan

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24

p. 77Experience shows a priori guesses about proportion of parts are disappointed.read · scan
p. 83–85Faults the theory of fitness because experience was not sufficiently consulted.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25

p. 442Philosophy teaching by experience must give way to direct inspection and embodiment, which alone counts as experience.read · scan

Sir Charles Lyell, Uniformity in the Series of Past Changes in the Animate and Inanimate WorldVol. 38

p. 416–417Hopes rest on observation and experiment, and on studying nature as it now is.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 355–356English scepticism of theory, surrender to fact and trial, common sense learned by practice.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 99Baconian experiment versus a priori reasoning in political theory.read · scan

1d.The doctrine that all knowledge derives from experience

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 103–104Locke begins from the infant and his own consciousness rather than from systems.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 300–301Materials of thinking derive from outward or inward sentiment and experience.read · scan
p. 301–302Ideas require actual feeling and sensation for access to the mind.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34

p. 272–273Philosophers say the mind contains only what experience instils; the vicar answers that universal moral agreement contradicts this.read · scan

Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32

p. 261–262Autonomy and unity of mind are conditions of the possibility of experience.read · scan
p. 263–264Sensation and consciousness through experience awaken the sensuous and rational impulses.read · scan

William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28

p. 333–334Great ideas come from indirect influences and the mind's native working, often unaccountably, rather than laborious teaching.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 442–443Kepler and Euler held experience must follow, not lead, the laws of the mind; the English repudiate this.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 139Mill's Logic derives all knowledge from experience and association against the intuitionist school.read · scan
p. 167–168The school of Experience and Association explains feelings and moral facts by circumstances, which reformers need.read · scan
p. 188The psychology of Experience and Association is presented as the school of thought behind the annotated Analysis.read · scan

2.The limits and critique of experience as a ground of knowledge

2a.Experience cannot found moral principles

Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32

p. 318Experience cannot certify that any action's maxim rested purely on moral grounds.read · scan
p. 319Deriving duty from experience gives triumph to cynics who see self-love in all actions.read · scan
p. 320No experience could establish apodictic laws; examples cannot furnish the conception of morality.read · scan
p. 328Elements of happiness are borrowed from experience, which teaches only average counsels of regimen and reserve.read · scan
p. 328–330Experience cannot show that any imperative is truly categorical, as hidden motives like fear of disgrace may operate.read · scan
p. 337Experience can furnish only contingent grounds, so it cannot found the principle of morality.read · scan
p. 341The principle cannot come from experience because it is universal and objective, not what men actually adopt.read · scan
p. 352Empirical principles lack universality and necessity since they rest on human nature's particular constitution and circumstances.read · scan
p. 357Freedom cannot be proved from supposed experiences of human nature, only a priori.read · scan
p. 365–366Freedom is not a concept of experience; nature is confirmed by experience.read · scan

2b.Experience and the aesthetic ideal

David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27

p. 206Rules of composition are founded on experience and general observation of what pleases in all countries and ages.read · scan
p. 207–208Rules of art are founded on experience and observation of human sentiment.read · scan

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24

p. 30Appeals to his own feelings as the certain evidence for three distinct states of mind.read · scan
p. 47Sound theory must rest on sure experience and observation of common things in nature, not on existing artworks.read · scan
p. 68Burke appeals to experience for darkness's greater effect on the passions.read · scan
p. 70–71The fact must be determined by every man's own experience and reflection.read · scan
p. 89The conclusion rests on contrary experience: proportioned or useful parts are not always beautiful.read · scan
p. 92Causes of beauty are to be found by observing what experience shows to be beautiful.read · scan
p. 103–104Fear of steeps or fire probably derives from experience or others' warnings.read · scan
p. 105–106Burke's own observation of mimicry supports his claim.read · scan
p. 115Cheselden's case of a boy born blind, horrified at first seeing black, is used as evidence.read · scan
p. 116Appeals to own trial and ladies' report that eyes ache after working on black grounds.read · scan
p. 116–117Supports theory by common experiences and the author's own trials of sleep and sudden darkness.read · scan

Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32

p. 237–238Experience is not the proper tribunal; it shows only individuals, so cannot decide what beauty truly is.read · scan
p. 247Cases combining feeling of existence and consciousness of freedom would give a complete intuition of humanity.read · scan
p. 249Experience can show whether beauty or humanity exists but not how they are possible.read · scan
p. 253Experience never offers perfectly balanced beauty, only oscillation between the two principles.read · scan
p. 256Reality and experience limit the beautiful compared with its ideal in theory.read · scan

2c.Hume's questioning of inference from past experience to the future

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 321Presumption of past and future alike rests on experience and is uncertain.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 311–312Asks foundation of conclusions from experience; answers they are not founded on reasoning or understanding.read · scan
p. 312Past experience gives information only of past objects; why extend it to the future is the main question.read · scan
p. 312–314Past experience of objects attended by effects is the basis of the inference whose rational ground Hume questions.read · scan
p. 314–315Trust in past experience as standard of future judgment cannot be justified by probable argument without circularity; a hundred instances differ from one without reasoning.read · scan
p. 315Experience shows only uniform effects, not the powers behind them, and cannot remedy natural ignorance.read · scan
p. 320Without experience one could infer nothing beyond what is present to memory and senses.read · scan
p. 321Experience yields conclusions only through custom.read · scan
p. 329Conclusions about matter of fact derive from experience and custom rather than reason.read · scan
p. 330–331Hume argues custom, not reason, connects past experience to expectation, a pre-established harmony with nature; inference from experience is instinctive and essential to life and conduct.read · scan
p. 332–333Past frequency of effects, like frost in January, weights expectation of future events.read · scan
p. 333Belief is supported by the number of past experiments transferred to the future.read · scan
p. 417–418We cannot justify believing a stone will fall after a thousand experiments, let alone origin of worlds.read · scan

2d.The fallibility and deceptiveness of experience

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 37–38Men cannot harmonize causes of other ages with their own limited experience.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 307Experience corrects the claim that English air is gross.read · scan

Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27

p. 13Experience showed the astronomer may fall into a ditch and the mathematician have a crooked heart.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39

p. 134–135Bacon examines the senses' information: they err or fail yet supply means of correcting themselves, so sense experience must be tested and sifted anew.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 136Example and experience teach little; they dupe us from misfortune to misfortune toward death.read · scan
p. 294–295No one dies a martyr for miracles he has seen, only for traditional beliefs.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 443Ancients denied vacuum because their experiments had never shown one; conclusions about diamonds or gold hold only for known bodies.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 344–345Fancied experience has no authority when applied to subjects beyond the sphere of experience.read · scan
p. 375–376Experience is our only guide in matters of fact yet fallible; it reveals varying degrees of certainty from constant to variable conjunctions.read · scan
p. 410–411Experience is silent, since the mind has only perceptions and cannot reach their connection with objects.read · scan

Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against SmallpoxVol. 38

p. 176–177Practitioner's own cases are offered as evidence, showing appearances misleading even to careful physicians.read · scan

Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32

p. 223The state spirit makes a particular, fragmentary experience the measure of all observation.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25

p. 443The experience of all men is said to belie the notion that best work comes easily.read · scan

Sir Charles Lyell, Prejudices Which Have Retarded the Progress of GeologyVol. 38

p. 386Fabulous tales are rejected as irreconcilable with the experience of enlightened ages.read · scan
p. 393Our position as land-dwellers observing only decay biases estimates of present change; unseen processes require reason and imagination.read · scan
p. 394Direct observation of present processes is limited by man's habitat; an amphibious observer would gain more direct experience.read · scan

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, What Is a Classic?Vol. 32

p. 130Ancient sages already knew all that moderns know; moderns merely repeat life's experiences.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 214Experience alone does not correct error; discussion is needed to interpret what experience means.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, DemocracyVol. 28

p. 451Doubts that an elderly man has any clarified residuum of experience worth calling an opinion.read · scan

3.Experience as the ground of belief in causes, testimony and human nature

3a.Causal inference learned only from experience

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 378–379Men guess future from past by observed sequence without seeing connection.read · scan

George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37

p. 221–222We learn by experience to infer what ideas will follow; a man born blind then made to see would have no notion of distance.read · scan
p. 224Connections between sensations, like sound and coach, are learned from past experience and suggested to the mind.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 307–308Adam could not infer water's suffocation or fire's burning without experience.read · scan
p. 308–309All laws of nature and operations of bodies are known only by experience.read · scan
p. 309–310Only observation and experience allow inferring cause or effect.read · scan
p. 311Laws of nature owe discovery to experience, not abstract reasoning.read · scan
p. 337–338Effects cannot be foreseen by thought alone but only through experience of what follows.read · scan
p. 339We learn the will's limited influence over body only by experience, which shows constant succession but not the connexion binding events.read · scan
p. 341–342The limits of mental power are known only by experience and observation, not reason.read · scan
p. 346Without experience we cannot conjecture what event will follow from any natural object.read · scan
p. 348Both definitions of cause are founded on experience of conjunction of similar objects.read · scan
p. 352–353Without resemblance among past events, inference and knowledge of causes would be impossible.read · scan
p. 371Inference from observed events to like events rests on experience of similar causes.read · scan
p. 373Even one accurate experiment becomes a foundation for expectation of similar events.read · scan
p. 399One regulates conduct by past experience of events, not conjectured divine attributes.read · scan
p. 405Experience, observation and analogy are the only guides; cause and effect must resemble known conjoined instances.read · scan
p. 419–420Only experience teaches bounds of cause and effect; it grounds moral reasoning, source of human knowledge and action.read · scan

Michael Faraday, The Forces of MatterVol. 30

p. 74Faraday says we have learned by experience how mercury modifies the zinc's action.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 310–311Darwin notes that experience taught the lower orders a relation between suppressed volcanoes and earthquakes.read · scan

3b.Experience of human nature and conduct

Sophocles, Oedipus the KingVol. 8

p. 235–236Jocasta says Oedipus fails to judge the present by the experience of the past.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 204Experience as advocate, judge and assessor taught him that judges' dispositions vary and slight things decide.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 175–179Experience of hospitality will confirm Dante's opinion more than others' words.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 310He wants to prove her goodness by trial, as fire shows the value of gold.read · scan
p. 401Experience has taught him that ransomed men rarely return, as regained liberty and fear blot out obligations.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 389–390Common conduct of arming and locking up confirms the inference from the passions.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 76Knowing men comes from living with eyes open; a young man needs forewarning like a chart before he gains experience.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 354Long experience of men teaches us human nature, letting us infer motives from actions and regulate conduct.read · scan
p. 357–358We draw inferences about future human actions from past experienced uniformity.read · scan
p. 358In dealing with others we constantly infer their actions from past experience, as we reason about external objects.read · scan
p. 360We predict human conduct with near-certainty from experience of usual behaviour, as with a friend or a purse left on the pavement.read · scan
p. 402Inferences about human agents rest on a hundred other observations about the species; without them the argument is fallacious.read · scan

George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2

p. 342Experience shows men's notions of justice confused and their actions inconsistent.read · scan

3c.Testimony, miracles and the weighing of experience against experience

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 376–377Credit in human testimony rests wholly on experience of the veracity of witnesses and the conformity of reports to facts.read · scan
p. 378Credit in testimony rests on customary conformity to experience; unusual facts set experience against experience, as with the Indian prince and frost.read · scan
p. 379Uniform experience against miracles amounts to a full proof, defeated only by a superior opposite proof.read · scan
p. 388–389We judge such reports by regular experience and observation, explaining them by natural principles of credulity.read · scan
p. 389Experience alone gives authority to testimony and to laws of nature; when they conflict, one subtracts, and for popular religions the result is nil.read · scan
p. 390–391Knowledge of a Being's actions comes only from experience of the usual course of nature; we compare frequency of false testimony with violations of nature.read · scan
p. 401Experienced course of events is the sole standard of conduct and judgment; inference beyond it is uncertain and useless.read · scan
p. 403–404Philosophy and religion cannot carry us beyond the usual course of experience and common life.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 121Darwin weighs credibility of the story by partial ocular proof and corroborating testimony from Dobrizhoffen and Malcolmson.read · scan

4.Learning from life: the school of hardship, action and example

4a.Learning by doing and apprenticeship

Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12

p. 194–195Suit against guardians gave him confidence and experience in speaking, taught by dangers.read · scan

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 49Knowing one's own country's terrain teaches a prince to grasp other regions by resemblance.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 11–12He learned gunshot treatment by chance and practice, not by books.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 100Time and experience teach causes and effects, as the cheese-wife knows, without reason or artread · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 349Natural wit is gotten by use and experience without method or instruction.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 157–158Useful discoveries made in barbarous times; Columbus found America without knowing the ship-angle theory.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 95His own experience of learning languages grounds his proposal.read · scan
p. 145–146He gained great readiness in electrical experiments through much practice.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5

p. 11–12Action is essential to the scholar: only so much do I know as I have lived; thought ripens into truth through action.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1252–1253He learned the way through trackless woods by following watercourses and natural signs.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 107–108Trackers read a rastro to infer numbers, haste and elapsed time, showing skill gained by practice.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 31The inexperienced author manages his trick at the helm to the officer's satisfaction.read · scan
p. 53No man knows what sailors are unless he has lived among them; practical skills like mending clothes are learned by living the life.read · scan
p. 57–59Novices learn surf-landing by watching the experienced Sandwich Islanders and copying their method.read · scan
p. 72–73The narrator learns seamanship from an old sailor and performs his first act of it, likening his pride to a good mark at Cambridge.read · scan
p. 80Learning by doing errands gave better instruction than study and showed him the people's customs.read · scan
p. 160–161Dana fills idle time on the beach with study of navigation, showing self-improvement through practice and working the examples.read · scan
p. 172Practical seamanship can be learned only on board ship, not in a hide-house.read · scan

4b.Wisdom taught by suffering, error and trial

Plato, PhaedoVol. 2

p. 90Socrates offers his own experience of inquiry as a guide to Cebes.read · scan

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2

p. 264–265Experience should induce one to flee vice.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 90Alypius goes away better experienced and instructed from the ordeal.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 142Morton learned experience of the world through many dangers and misfortunes, which is not easily forgotten.read · scan

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 176He has learned by experience that safety in extremity consists in taking time by the forelock.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 511–512Sancho knows from experience that ninety-nine of a hundred adventures go badly, yet still finds the life fine.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 337–338Most particular appetites arise from experience and trial of effects on oneself or others.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 246The roving mind learns by warning or experience to attend to practical life.read · scan
p. 281Eve urges Adam to taste on the strength of her own experience.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 246Christiana says none can know the Valley of the Shadow of Death until they pass through it themselves.read · scan
p. 267–268Gaius says nothing teaches like experience; he has found by it that kindness pays.read · scan
p. 292–293Pilgrims shown warnings of those who regret their choices; the lesson is drawn from sights, but experience as such is not treated. Largely incidental.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 74–75Warning examples let him avoid buying knowledge by too dear experience.read · scan
p. 98–99Experience of a fire's pain teaches the child to fear and avoid it.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 319Solitude teaches better than any school; reflection on where he hit and missed the mark.read · scan
p. 320Reviewing past life corrects future conduct.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 120–121An accidental occurrence, a poor woman sweeping a street quickly, instructs Franklin how much sweeping can be done.read · scan

John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1

p. 196–197He found from experience that spirits left the mind less calm for meditation.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 67–68Losses and crosses are severe lessons that teach self-knowledge and show real good and ill.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 641Renzo derives useful instruction from his annoyances.read · scan
p. 642–643Renzo lists lessons learned from his adventures; Lucia notes troubles come even to the blameless.read · scan

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17

p. 111–112Red-Cap learns from her ordeal to obey her mother.read · scan
p. 159–160The father says Dummling will get wiser by hurting himself, learning from injury.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5

p. 97–98No one understands a truth until contending against it; suffering and being defeated teach skill and self-knowledge.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, HeroismVol. 5

p. 128The maiden should accept each new experience and try the gifts God offers to learn her own power.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 17Later experience interpreted his father's remarks and confirmed logic's value.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 237Proverbs and maxims are truly understood only when painful personal experience makes them real.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 52–53Darwin catches his own horse with the bolas by accident, learning the tool's power to Gauchos' laughter.read · scan
p. 114He draws a practical lesson from the cramp caused by the shift from riding to climbing, worth remembering for future difficulty.read · scan

Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical EvolutionVol. 30

p. 350–351Man has been taught by his own bitter experience the folly of stripping forests.read · scan

4c.The inexperienced and the experienced contrasted

Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8

p. 287Creon testifies from experience to the good Teiresias' guidance has done.read · scan

Hippocrates, The Law of HippocratesVol. 38

p. 4Inexperience is a bad treasure breeding timidity and audacity.read · scan

Buddhist WritingsVol. 45

p. 734–735The traveler who knows the road crosses safely, while the unprepared newcomer retreats, showing the value of preparation and prior practice.read · scan

Plutarch, ThemistoclesVol. 12

p. 11–12Actual trial in real danger at Artemisium taught the Greeks what to despise in the enemy.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 118He visits the aged Simplicianus, whose long devoted life gave him much experience to advise.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 299The aged sheykh's travels qualify him as guide.read · scan
p. 313–314The sheykh says the experienced differs from the inexperienced, volunteering after twelve men die.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 12–13The physician praises the young surgeon as old in knowledge and experience.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 144–145Quixote says experience will show Sancho how great his valour is.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 324–325Raleigh's small band penetrates further than Berreo's costly expeditions, despite Berreo's experience of earlier failures.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 104Age's experience directs it in familiar things but misleads in new things.read · scan

John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4

p. 34–39Old experience in the hermitage attains something like prophetic strain.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4

p. 384Satan argues that a private life lacks the 'best school of experience'; even the wise untried remain timorous and irresolute.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 293–294Experience appears only as the name of a Shepherd beside Knowledge; Great-heart's acquaintance with things lets him give cautions seasonably, a slight nod to learning from experience.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 74Unexperienced young men take appearances for reality and fall into debauchery when let loose.read · scan
p. 119Full wisdom comes from time, experience and acquaintance with men, beyond the reach of childhood.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 322Reason and experience are distinguished in politics and the conduct of life; the experienced statesman, physician or merchant is trusted over the novice.read · scan
p. 323–324Maxims of conduct are liable to error until experience teaches their application; an entirely unexperienced reasoner would be no reasoner.read · scan
p. 374The man with greater experience and promptitude in suggesting analogies is the better reasoner.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 401–402Melchthal pleads that youth and lack of experience should not discredit his counsel.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 40–41Agnese claims worldly knowledge from her greater age: poor people find troubles tangled, but she knows how things really go.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 63The young naturalist's judgment of species matures with wider observation, though analogy must be trusted where links are missing.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 84The guide's habituation to deprivation astonishes Darwin, who cannot imagine surviving days without water.read · scan
p. 200Even Gauchos, lifelong riders, become stiff after time away; shows real muscular effort in riding.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 7–8Novice's exaggerated anxiety over his first watch contrasts with the old salt's practiced ease.read · scan
p. 8Landsman is bewildered and helpless amid unintelligible orders, lacking any knowledge of a vessel.read · scan
p. 11New scene and new experience as the greenhorn is called on deck in a storm.read · scan
p. 27Narrator, now used to the vessel, finds his first gale serious while an older sailor would think nothing of it.read · scan
p. 36Captain Job Terry, forty years in the whale trade, has owned, built and sailed ships.read · scan
p. 36–37Captain Terry corrects the reckoning and tells long yarns; the countrified lad longs for his father's pigs.read · scan
p. 108–109The older thorough seaman Wilson takes command, his skill surpassing the captain's bungling.read · scan
p. 208Experienced beach-combers succeed in the surf where the inexperienced whalemen and Kanakas fail repeatedly.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Twenty-Four Years AfterVol. 23

p. 400–401The old sailor scorns the midshipman who cannot say the length of a fathom.read · scan

Frank Aretas Haskell, The Battle of GettysburgVol. 43

p. 386–388One who never saw a battle can have no adequate idea of it.read · scan

4d.Proverbs and maxims as distilled experience

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40

p. 38Old books and experience show against Cato that dreams are significations of joy or trouble.read · scan
p. 40Examples from old stories teach that dreams warn.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 165Quixote calls proverbs sentences taken from experience, the universal mother of sciences.read · scan
p. 382Proverbs are praised as brief sentences gathered from long and discreet experience.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 11–12Locke uses examples of grown men and peoples to overcome fears where plain reason is seldom heard.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 318–320Old man should teach youngsters saws of experience.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25

p. 333Repeated experience and instinct teach men that the loud is empty and the great is secret to itself.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 237Proverbs and maxims are truly understood only when painful personal experience makes them real.read · scan

5.Travel, observation and firsthand witness

5a.Travel as part of education and experience

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 241Hythloday's firsthand worldly experience and travel exceed Ulysses and Vespucci; seen things are described more effectively than heard.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 49–50On his travels he inquires of surgeons about rare cases so as to learn something new.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 280Men sent to report on the country's commodities from their own travel and experience.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 45–46For the elder, travel is a part of experience; diaries record observation rather than chance.read · scan
p. 46–47Acquaintance with ambassadors' secretaries lets a traveller draw on the experience of many countries.read · scan

Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15

p. 325–326Donne travels in Italy and Spain, observing countries, their laws and government, and mastering languages.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 10He left letters for the book of the world, travel and varied experience, judging practical reasoning truer than speculation.read · scan
p. 11Studying the book of the world gave experience, then he turned to study himself.read · scan
p. 25Travel and observing mankind yielded observations and experience to build more certain opinions.read · scan

John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3

p. 245Travel gains practical knowledge and tests gifts of nature; older youth travel to enlarge experience and make wise observation.read · scan

Abraham Cowley, PoemsVol. 40

p. 365–366Dull men stay home when they might roam abroad, gaining experience and seeing wonders.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 179–180Travel should yield the youth's own observations of other countries; those who travel under governors make none and return unimproved.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19

p. 339–340Curiosity teaches how worldly experiences fit together harmoniously.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 381–382Travellers examine every pretension and secret, testing the Inquisition, the winking Virgin and St. Januarius's blood.read · scan

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42

p. 976–977Ulysses: all experience is an arch through which the untravelled world gleams; he is a part of all he has met.read · scan

5b.Eyewitness against hearsay

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 8Herodotus confirms the priests' claim by observation, using a sounding-line to find mud near the coast.read · scan
p. 11Personal observation and priests' record of the river's rising height over nine hundred years support the conclusion.read · scan
p. 17–18He relies on eyewitness travel to Elephantine and diligent inquiry, and distrusts hearsay.read · scan
p. 48Herodotus distinguishes what rests on his own observation, judgment and inquiry from what he will report from hearsay.read · scan
p. 73–74Herodotus distinguishes what he saw himself, the upper chambers, from what he learned only by hearsay.read · scan
p. 74–75Herodotus inquires where the excavated earth went and accepts the locals' answer, having heard of a similar case at Nineveh.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 310Knowledge that Italy's soil is noble comes from experience.read · scan
p. 334–335Author cites what he has seen himself and other authorities on the barnacle's generation.read · scan
p. 337–340Distinguishes what he has seen himself from hearsay and leaves further trial to others.read · scan
p. 342–343Harrison sets his own observation of an adder's young against authorities such as Nicander and Encelius.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 359He admits he never saw the Ewaipanoma and relies on testimony.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 156Kennedy tests the log-line and throws the log himself, settling the wager and proving thirteen knots.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 517Recommends the method of observing, listening and comparing before speaking.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 321Urges a man to examine strata and watch rivulets and waves himself to comprehend duration.read · scan
p. 328Darwin draws on his own examination of the South American coasts.read · scan
p. 409Darwin recalls his surprise at Brazilian fresh-water insects and shells resembling Britain's while land beings differed.read · scan
p. 463Darwin checks breeders' claims by actually measuring dogs and horses, testing report against measurement.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 31Personal observation settles a fact doubted in England.read · scan
p. 91–92His own excursion at Cape Town made his reading of African travels intelligible.read · scan
p. 92–93Relies on Dr. Smith's firsthand observations to show the abundance of large animals.read · scan
p. 97Darwin relies on Gaucho testimony and his own observation of nests.read · scan
p. 99Draws on local testimony and earlier travelers to confirm two kinds of ostrich.read · scan
p. 104Darwin bases his conclusion on comparative temperature observations taken at Bahia Blanca and Monte Video.read · scan
p. 337Personal experience of the passes corrects the reports of travellers about danger.read · scan
p. 344–345Darwin weighs a load himself to test Captain Head's account he thought exaggerated.read · scan
p. 386–387Darwin draws on direct observation and on inhabitants' reports about tortoise habits.read · scan
p. 398–399Darwin regrets mingling collections and admits he first overlooked the Vice-Governor's observation, learning from local testimony.read · scan
p. 467–468Darwin tests the coral's sting on his own skin, describing sensations and duration.read · scan
p. 471Relies on Fitz Roy's careful soundings as observational evidence.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 5Dana argues only a man who has lived a common sailor's life can truthfully report it, unlike naval officers or passengers.read · scan
p. 357Author's conclusions about seamen are drawn from his own voyage experience and later attention to the subject.read · scan

Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28

p. 399–400Thoreau's walks into untamed land contrast with the surveyor's narrow bounds; experience of nature is implied but the passage mainly concerns wildness and politics.read · scan
p. 422Climbing the tree revealed new mountains and blossoms never seen from below.read · scan

Hermann von Helmholtz, Ice and GlaciersVol. 30

p. 217–218Uses individual and accidental observations to infer the glacier's depth.read · scan
p. 218–219Relies on soundings by Tyndall and Hirst and guides' reports to estimate depth.read · scan
p. 224Inhabitants' and travellers' observations over decades demonstrate the glacier's motion.read · scan
p. 224–226Hugi, Agassiz, Forbes and Tyndall determine the motion by long observation and accurate measurement.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The TidesVol. 30

p. 282–283Careful observation of instruments and tide curves reveals irregular phenomena like seiches.read · scan

Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical EvolutionVol. 30

p. 330–331Actual dredging and inspection supply evidence, correcting inference.read · scan

5c.Explorers' trials of reports and ores

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 245–247He tests the particles with a knife and finds the stone crumbles.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 283Proofs by English merchants' fattened sheep and sown peas; experiments intended.read · scan
p. 287Haies records expert navigators' reckonings so that others may avoid the flats where the Admiral was lost.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 305Ore is tested by trial and assay, and he judged from observation what was marcasite.read · scan
p. 305Cites repeated assays by London refiners and mint officials showing the Guiana ore's gold content per ton.read · scan
p. 336–337He cites the belief of experienced traders like John Hampton that ships entering the bay cannot return, then tests it by scouting.read · scan
p. 356Men without judgment or experience mistake glistering stones for rich ore and spread false opinion.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 326–327Darwin tests the red stain by rubbing it on paper and viewing it under magnification.read · scan

6.Experience in practical, economic and professional affairs

6a.Appeals to experience in economic argument

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 62–63The utility of paper currency became evident through time and experience.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 46–47Merchants adjust prices by what experience shows coin actually contains on average.read · scan
p. 59Appeals to every man's experience that cloth prices vary less than corn prices.read · scan
p. 76Appeals to experience that men do not readily move to higher wages.read · scan
p. 77Experience seems to show law cannot regulate wages.read · scan
p. 164–165Smith judges oatmeal versus wheaten bread by observed strength and looks of common people in Scotland and England.read · scan
p. 315Experience showed nobles and merchants that foreign trade enriched, though none knew how.read · scan
p. 340Small quantities of Irish salt provisions imported since freedom is an experimental proof graziers need not fear.read · scan
p. 361–363Smith appeals to experience in wine countries to show cheapness causes sobriety, not drunkenness.read · scan
p. 438–439Experience shows the body stays healthy under varied regimens, against the speculative physicians' rigid theory.read · scan
p. 459Experience shows joint stock companies cannot long carry on foreign trade without a monopoly.read · scan
p. 459–460Morellet's list of failed joint stock companies serves as historical evidence of their mismanagement.read · scan
p. 527–528Smith appeals to experience to show which rates afford greatest revenue and that excise laws hinder smugglers better.read · scan

6b.The practitioner's knowledge that books cannot capture

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 34–35Lucagnolo says experience will teach which work profits more.read · scan
p. 288–289He consults old Paris founders, whose practice differs from Italian method; each trusts own experience and predicts the other's failure.read · scan
p. 329–330Cellini cast the heads to learn unfamiliar French clays, since large works could not be attempted without the trial.read · scan
p. 357He learns by trial casts that the Florentine clay is sound and prepares it artificially.read · scan
p. 379He knows from practice that dry oak heats more powerfully than alder or pine.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 14–15Paré's practical ingenuity succeeds where the best army surgeons failed.read · scan
p. 34Paré scorns the armchair physician whose diets exist only on paper, unlike the real conditions of battlefield care.read · scan
p. 38Paré's practical surgical knowledge, including the danger of tents falling into the chest, shown before senior physicians.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 240Cato examined and learned the forces of each simple diligently; Indians know only what their practice teaches.read · scan
p. 308Practical knowledge of how long marl lasts is reported from experience.read · scan
p. 311Yields of hay confirmed by experience.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 385–387Experience showed how easily trenches could be raised in sand, explaining the fall of the supposedly impregnable fortress.read · scan

John Milton, Tractate on EducationVol. 3

p. 240–241Learn from the helpful experiences of hunters, gardeners, apothecaries, mariners and other practitioners.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 120Learning from lamp performance at Vauxhall and London's failure to apply it.read · scan
p. 155Moving the water casks aft shows by trial that trim caused the ship's dullness.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 129Farming demands great knowledge and experience that books cannot capture, unlike mechanic trades easily explained in a pamphlet.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5

p. 48Skill and experience behind making goods cannot be bequeathed with them.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 356–357Cutlery shows long experience of workmen; use and fitness govern building and dress.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 41Expert breeders' practical knowledge contrasted with their neglect of general arguments.read · scan
p. 303–304Farmers' and gardeners' practice of exchanging seed is offered as evidence that changed conditions benefit organisms.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 321Miners' practical knowledge of ores and hill wanderings discover mines, e.g., a silver vein found by a thrown stone.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 194Harris's long experience, careful observation and memory give him knowledge of expedients in hazard, valued above study.read · scan
p. 291Narrator recognizes the mist bank from a previous passage and knows at once that no time is to be lost.read · scan
p. 348Sailors' knowledge of the sea bottom lets them locate the ship in the dark by the sounding.read · scan

6c.Medical practice tested by observed cases

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 169–170The old physician learns from the unexpected recovery and contrasts his judgment with the quack's.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 11Observation of patients overturns the authority of de Vigo's book on treating gunshot wounds.read · scan
p. 11–12He learned gunshot treatment by chance and practice, not by books.read · scan
p. 45Paré wishes his master had been present to experience the smells and report them.read · scan

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 165–166The anatomy of Joseph Drake was an experiment to discover the disease's cause and help others.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 81A man's own observation of what helps or harms him is the best physic.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 25Experiment tried on others and on a child shows success of the method.read · scan
p. 26Locke grounds his advice in reason and experience and his study of physic.read · scan

Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against SmallpoxVol. 38

p. 177–178A physician's error was exposed only by fatal consequences, showing practice tested by results.read · scan

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Contagiousness of Puerperal FeverVol. 38

p. 223Sceptics relied on solitary experience and knew few of the facts; negative instances need careful circumstantial explanation.read · scan
p. 233–234Rutter changes his clothing after an absence yet the disease recurs; evidence from practice is used against transmission.read · scan
p. 235–236Holmes gathers clinical case testimony from physicians as evidence.read · scan
p. 238–239Testimony from a practitioner's own experience is offered as evidence, with close dates and circumstances.read · scan
p. 239–240Belief changes because of the practitioner's observed cases.read · scan
p. 244–245Accumulated reports from practitioners serve as evidence.read · scan

7.Experience in politics, society and the conduct of life

7a.The controversy over experience versus theory in government

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 5Machiavelli offers as his prized gift knowledge of great men's actions gained from long experience of modern affairs and study of antiquity.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 140–141Raphael's perfect learning and great experience combine to make him fit to advise a king.read · scan
p. 168–169Peter argues long use and experience in old commonwealths found many useful things, while Raphael counters that Utopian diligence exceeds European wit.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 178–179Elected members were men of theory, lacking practical experience in the stateread · scan
p. 182Professional narrowness disables men for knowledge of mankind and mixed affairsread · scan
p. 195Theorists despise experience as wisdom of unlettered men; Burke values the test of long experience.read · scan
p. 198The science of a commonwealth is experimental, not a priori; effects of moral causes are slow, so caution before pulling down old institutions.read · scan
p. 221He speaks from forty years' observation of the English people of all ranks, not authority.read · scan
p. 298–299Their public schemes are untried speculations with nothing in experience to show benefit, like boasting empirics experimenting on the state.read · scan
p. 300–301Burke appeals to experience, out of fashion in Paris, that plans are mended by lesser minds' observations.read · scan
p. 323–324Practical experience of an old peasant or monk outweighs the learning of academies and bankers.read · scan
p. 346Burke scorns the doctrine that ministers should disregard old men and experience; revolutionaries abjure the 'heresies of experience'.read · scan

Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, The Federalist, Nos. I and IIVol. 43

p. 207Convention members had grown old acquiring political information and carried knowledge from earlier Congress.read · scan

Sydney Smith, Fallacies of Anti-ReformersVol. 27

p. 226Experience is the mother of wisdom; since later generations have accumulated more, we are the ancients and ancestors were young and inexperienced.read · scan
p. 226–227When changing what ancestors enacted, we are the experienced persons; superiority of experience measures the difference between the periods.read · scan
p. 230A generation with a century more experience should not surrender its intellect to one with less.read · scan

George Washington, Washington's Farewell AddressVol. 43

p. 246Experience must cure the illusion of expecting disinterested favors from nations.read · scan

Thomas Babington Macaulay, MachiavelliVol. 27

p. 395Practical business experience corrected his speculations, unlike vague theories of most political philosophers.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 56Official work taught Mill by practice the difficulties of public affairs, benefiting him as a theoretical reformer.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 307The outside public lacks practical experience to criticize or check bureaucratic operations.read · scan

7b.Precedent and experience in law and constitutions

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 99–100Success of the institution shown by fewer losses by fire over fifty years.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34

p. 214Experience showed weaknesses of the early constitution; men lacked philosophy and foresight.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 163No experience has taught that any other method than hereditary crown regularly preserves liberties.read · scan
p. 263Judges a political institution by what experience shows it has produced.read · scan
p. 304–305Old establishments are tried by effects and corrected by experience; theories are drawn from them rather than the reverse.read · scan

Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, The Federalist, Nos. I and IIVol. 43

p. 206Past experience shows self-interest and ambition will oppose recommended measures; the wise Congress brought pooled information.read · scan

John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of MarylandVol. 43

p. 218Fixed rules would deprive the legislature of capacity to avail itself of experience and accommodate circumstances.read · scan

George Washington, Washington's Farewell AddressVol. 43

p. 237Let experience, not mere speculation, decide whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28

p. 439Precedent is embodied experience; Lincoln's wisdom came from knowledge of things and men, not improvised statesmanship.read · scan

7c.Experiments in living and social progress

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34

p. 200Experience instructs him when common interest allows cooperation and when competition demands caution.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 175Contact with large bodies of countrymen gave him new experience.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 250Argues for different experiments of living, proving the worth of different modes of life practically.read · scan
p. 252Mature persons should interpret recorded experience in their own way; others' experience is presumptive evidence only.read · scan
p. 275–276Objectors claim experience has established certain moral truths so generations need not repeat fatal errors.read · scan
p. 306Varied experiments by individuals yield diverse experience, which the state should collect and diffuse.read · scan

8.Experience in art, letters and the life of the mind

8a.The writer's and poet's experience

Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12

p. 192His experience of things let him follow the meaning of words.read · scan

Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27

p. 26–27Comedy gives an experience of what to expect from types such as the niggardly or vainglorious.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 69–70Other people's affairs shown interestingly are the nearest thing to experience of one's own.read · scan

Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39

p. 183–184He built the dictionary method from experience and analogy, refined by practice and observation.read · scan

Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39

p. 228–229Understanding Shakespeare requires looking to the sports of the field and manufactures of the shop, knowledge books did not supply.read · scan
p. 229–230Nature gives no man knowledge; Shakespeare grew wiser by gradual acquisition and observation, since books and precepts cannot confer vigilance of observation.read · scan
p. 230–231Knowledge of many modes of life gained by direct observation rather than from other minds.read · scan

Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18

p. 225–227Marlow claims to be only an observer upon life while others enjoy it.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Introduction to the PropyläenVol. 39

p. 252–253The artist trains sharper observation from experience; pure observation is rare since we confuse sensation and opinion with experience.read · scan
p. 254–255The true artist learns the demand of imitating Nature only by experience during development.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 136–137Poet's sage experience of life's round declares the greatest pleasure is young, modest love.read · scan

Leigh Hunt, On the Realities of ImaginationVol. 27

p. 290–291Author's knowledge comes from some reflection and experience, instinctive rather than reasoning.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25

p. 413His rambles unknowingly prepared his life's work; he was 'making himself' without knowing it.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5

p. 12–13Experience is the raw material the intellect converts into thought; only what one knows by experience extends one's being.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5

p. 165The poet unfolds a whole new experience, enriching all men by telling how it was with him.read · scan
p. 168The poorest experience suffices for expressing thought; why covet new facts when few symbols are unexhausted.read · scan

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, MontaigneVol. 32

p. 114Curiosity to witness and learn from the spectacle of public ruin, like Empedocles and Pliny approaching volcanoes.read · scan
p. 118–119His book is a store of moral observation and experience useful to readers.read · scan

Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28

p. 398Outdoor life and manual labor give the tan and callus of experience, which idleness and sentimentality lack.read · scan
p. 399Thoreau's daily walking yields ever-new prospects and a being present in the senses; a mild hint of lived experience as source of fresh perception.read · scan
p. 420Few crises and experiences in our lives; Dante and Bunyan were exercised more deeply.read · scan

Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28

p. 171The ascetic lacks moral experience, neither tempted nor comprehending others' temptations, so errs and believes himself right.read · scan
p. 172–173Milton recounts his youthful reading and how his experience of poets shaped his moral ideal of self-reverence; autobiographical formation, only loosely about experience.read · scan
p. 200–201Adam and Eve are without experience, guile or knowledge of good and evil, unequal to Satan.read · scan

Hippolyte Taine, Introduction to the History of English LiteratureVol. 39

p. 412Judging requires presence; no experience can be had of what is absent, so observation is approximated.read · scan
p. 433Learn to observe humanity and life as it is and read documents for the sentiments behind the words.read · scan

8b.Taste perfected by practice and comparison

Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39

p. 208Works appealing to observation and experience are tested by time, unlike demonstrative science.read · scan

David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27

p. 210–211Delicacy is ascertained by appeal to models established by the consent and experience of nations and ages.read · scan
p. 211–212Practice and repeated contemplation of an art sharpen delicacy and make feeling exact.read · scan
p. 215–216Practice and comparison are needed to perfect taste.read · scan

Edmund Burke, On Taste: Introductory DiscourseVol. 24

p. 17–18Knowledge of things compared depends on experience and observation, hence differences in taste.read · scan

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24

p. 87Good sense and experience together find out what is fit in every work of art.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Introduction to the PropyläenVol. 39

p. 261–262Further experience and training turn vague feeling into insight, so pleasure grows with knowledge.read · scan

8c.Religious and moral experience

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2

p. 300Belief in gods rests on constantly experienced power.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 124–125He understands Paul's words about flesh and spirit through his own experience.read · scan

Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36

p. 344–345Faith cannot be understood or written of well without having tasted it under tribulation.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 180Abdiel appeals to experience to know how good and provident God isread · scan

John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4

p. 415God's servants gain new true experience from this great event.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 162Experience shows a difference between piety and goodness.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 122–123One shepherd is named Experience, among those who tend and instruct pilgrims.read · scan
p. 243–244Guide and other pilgrims testify from experience the valley is best place.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 363–364Knowing God through felt justice, mercy and forgiveness is experience and enjoyment, not speculation or report.read · scan

John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1

p. 184–185Renewed experience taught them to labor for inward stillness.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5

p. 34The true preacher converts his lived experience into truth; the bad one shows no sign of having lived.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5

p. 133Appeal to experience cannot silence great hopes of man; brief moments of faith carry more reality than all else.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5

p. 236Nature's essence is lived through blood, pain, pleasure, melancholy and labor, though long unrecognized.read · scan

9.Experiment as method in natural science

9a.The theory and program of experiment

See also: Science 2a · Mind 6c · Progress 3c · Cause 7a

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 7Psammetichos tries an experiment, having failed to find the oldest people by inquiry, to settle the question of human origins.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20

p. 289She proposes the three-mirror experiment as the source of the arts to test the explanation.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 171–172Preparations and instruments for experiments in coagulation, induration and refrigeration.read · scan
p. 174–175Trials on fishes and creatures proceed by experiment.read · scan
p. 179–180Experiments are gathered, tried, tabulated and directed to find causes and things of use.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39

p. 121No one has dwelt upon experience and the facts of nature as long as is necessary.read · scan
p. 121Bacon criticizes aimless, petty experimenting without system, and the pursuit of experiments of fruit rather than experiments of light.read · scan
p. 126Chance experiments and unguided experience cannot overcome nature's labyrinthine difficulties.read · scan
p. 134Bacon calls for a new induction that analyses experience and takes it to pieces by exclusion, rather than simple enumeration or flight from particulars to axioms.read · scan
p. 134–135Bacon examines the senses' information: they err or fail yet supply means of correcting themselves, so sense experience must be tested and sifted anew.read · scan
p. 135–136Experiments, more subtle than the senses, correct sense's failures: the sense judges the experiment and the experiment judges the thing.read · scan
p. 136–137The third part gathers natural history of all experience; discoverers must go to facts, not genius or argument.read · scan
p. 137–138Existing observation, tradition, practice and experiment are careless, blind and prematurely broken off; a new natural history must supply sound experience.read · scan
p. 138–139He seeks subtler, simpler experiments than accidental ones, aimed at discovering causes.read · scan
p. 139Experiments are reported with the manner of making them so others may check errors and devise better proofs.read · scan
p. 140Bacon proposes actual examples of inquiry and invention to display the whole process of the mind.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Preface to the Novum OrganumVol. 39

p. 143Whether anything can be known is to be settled by trying, not arguing.read · scan
p. 146Judgment should rest on personal trial and the subtlety of nature to which experience bears witness.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 19He amasses experience to furnish materials for his reasonings.read · scan
p. 49Progress hindered by shortness of life and want of experiments, which others are urged to contribute.read · scan
p. 51Experiments grow more necessary as knowledge advances; begin with ordinary phenomena before rare ones.read · scan
p. 51Experiments are needed to choose among the many ways an effect can be deduced from principles.read · scan
p. 55–57Experiments are needed but one man cannot make them all; others' experiments are cluttered, ill described or falsified by their principles.read · scan
p. 58–59His self-instruction is delayed for want of innumerable experiments requiring others' help.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 439In physical matters experiments and reasoning, not authority, should serve as proof.read · scan
p. 440–441Multiplying experiments, the sole principles of physics, reveals nature's secrets over time.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 100–101Bacon ran experiments such as a pneumatic engine and proposed tests of clock speed.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 147–148Experiments anyone can repeat verify claims, and truth is settled by trial.read · scan
p. 157Franklin proposes systematic experiments on hull form, masts, sails and lading to find rules for swift sailing.read · scan

9b.Anatomical and physiological demonstration

See also: Medicine 10a · Animal 1d · Science 3b · Reasoning 5a

William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38

p. 62–64He learns and teaches anatomy from dissections and the fabric of nature, not from books or philosophers' positions.read · scan
p. 65Truth is to be confirmed by dissection, multiplied experience and accurate observation.read · scan
p. 65Observations from cut and tied arteries are used to test received doctrine.read · scan
p. 67Relies on arteriotomy, ligatures and dissection of dead and living animals as evidence against received opinion.read · scan
p. 67Discusses Galen's tube-and-ligature experiment and doubts it could be performed on a living body.read · scan
p. 67–69Spurting from wounded arteries with diastole shows the artery is dilated by the blood's impulse; observation of aneurism and varied animals supports it.read · scan
p. 71Cites Galen's experiment of inflating a dog's lungs: air is found in lungs but not pulmonary veins or left ventricle.read · scan
p. 72Observation shows no pores can be demonstrated in the septum.read · scan
p. 72–73Concludes that the heart must be investigated by vivisection and ocular inspection in all animals to discern truth.read · scan
p. 75Harvey insists on learning the heart's motion from actual vivisection rather than from books, despite rapid, confusing motions.read · scan
p. 77Describes observations from dissecting living animals, noting heart motion and rest, more visible in cold-blooded or dying animals.read · scan
p. 77–78Relies on color change and blood projected from a pierced ventricle to overturn accepted opinion.read · scan
p. 79–80Harvey argues from observed wounds, arteriotomy and fishes that arterial diastole coincides with ventricular systole.read · scan
p. 80–81Harvey cites a case of aneurism, confirmed by dissection, as proof of his account of the pulse.read · scan
p. 82Harvey corrects eminent anatomists by observing in vivisection that heart motions are four in place but two in time.read · scan
p. 83Experiments with a dying heart show blood is thrown into ventricles by auricular pulses, not drawn by dilatation.read · scan
p. 84Harvey's experiment on a pigeon and observation of the chick embryo ground his conclusions.read · scan
p. 85Uses a magnifying glass to see hearts of tiny insects.read · scan
p. 85–86Observation of transparent shrimp and the chick in ovo gives direct view of the heart.read · scan
p. 90–91Anatomists err by studying only the dead human body; dissecting lower animals like fishes makes blood flow evident to sight.read · scan
p. 91–92Harvey grounds his claim in dissection and observation of the foetal foramen ovale and arterial canal.read · scan
p. 92–93Refutes the claim that the embryo's heart does not move, citing his own repeated inspection of eggs and embryos.read · scan
p. 100–101Evidence from vivisections and the structure of the heart and valves leads him to conceive circular motion of the blood.read · scan
p. 103Appeals to measurements from dead bodies and sheep to ground the calculation.read · scan
p. 105Appeals to butchers' slaughter and amputations, where blood drains rapidly, as evidence of circulation.read · scan
p. 106Experiment on sheep and dogs, dividing artery versus vein, shows arteries drain the blood forcefully.read · scan
p. 107–108Confirms the first position by calculation, experiment and dissection, including bleeding of slaughtered oxen.read · scan
p. 108Live snake dissection and ligatures show heart emptying and refilling, offering proof before one's own eyes.read · scan
p. 109Compressing the artery or vein of a live animal visibly distends or empties the heart, confirming the argument by eye.read · scan
p. 109–110Introduces experiments showing blood enters a limb by arteries and returns by veins.read · scan
p. 110–111Describes an experiment on a human arm with a bloodletting fillet showing arteries swelling above and hand engorging.read · scan
p. 111–112Observer feels blood glide under the finger and warmth in the hand, demonstrating entry by arteries.read · scan
p. 112–113Cold blood felt returning upward when the fillet is undone.read · scan
p. 113–114Pricking a small vein makes all shrink, showing veins' communication.read · scan
p. 114Recounts his own bruised forehead swelling quickly after a carriage fall, from blood driven by a nearby artery.read · scan
p. 115Appeals to familiar bloodletting practice ('as all the world knows') as observational confirmation of the circulation.read · scan
p. 117Promises proof from experiments cognizable by the senses and from the anatomical observation of vein valves.read · scan
p. 119Harvey's dissections and probe experiments show the valves let blood pass only toward the heart.read · scan
p. 120A demonstrable experiment on the bound arm lets the reader see the valves block blood in the veins.read · scan
p. 120Further finger experiment shows blood in veins moves only toward the heart, not away.read · scan
p. 121Repeated experiment of streaking blood past a valve, quantified a thousandfold, is offered as proof of the circulation.read · scan
p. 139Appeals to ocular inspection and dissection, not only to Aristotle, as grounds for blood quantity in the lungs.read · scan

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 39Urges those unversed in anatomy to see dissection for themselves.read · scan
p. 39Wants students to observe the valves and heart structures directly.read · scan
p. 40Support from observation by eye, heat felt by fingers, and the nature of blood learned from experience.read · scan
p. 41Appeals to the ordinary experience of surgeons as evidence for the circulation.read · scan
p. 41–42Confirms the theory by observed effects of ligatures and severed arteries.read · scan

9c.Experiments establishing medical and germ theories

See also: Medicine 9c · Life and Death 1d · Quantity 4d · Cause 9b

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 95Circassians drew conclusions from natural observation that one never has severe smallpox twice, then confirmed it by experiment.read · scan
p. 95–96The princess has the operation tried on four criminals before trusting it on her own children.read · scan
p. 96–97Calculation of outcomes among inoculated and uninoculated supports the practice.read · scan

Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against SmallpoxVol. 38

p. 147–148Inoculation trials on Merret, with scrupulous care that no subject had prior smallpox, test the claim.read · scan
p. 148–149Case-by-case inoculations with active matter serve as experimental evidence of immunity.read · scan
p. 149–150Farmers' practical knowledge and Jenner's trials show the link between the two diseases.read · scan
p. 150–151Inoculating the servant by incisions and punctures tests protection; notes variation in the animal economy.read · scan
p. 151–152Inoculation decades later tests durability of protection.read · scan
p. 153Case histories and exposure trials serve as observed evidence that prior cowpox renders men unsusceptible to smallpox.read · scan
p. 154–155Compares varied cases of inoculation to show what protects and what does not.read · scan
p. 156–157Jenner inoculates a boy with cow-pox and then smallpox matter to observe by experiment whether the first infection protects against the second.read · scan
p. 157–158Experiment made to ascertain progress and effects of the disease when propagated from horse-derived matter; result still undecided.read · scan
p. 158–159Cases transferred from arm to arm to observe the similarity of cow-pox to variolous inoculation.read · scan
p. 159–160Jenner reasons from experience and experiment, comparing treated and untreated children to judge the caustic's usefulness.read · scan
p. 160–161Repeated trials show the cow-pox matter keeps its properties through five human transfers and protects against variolous matter, with a control patient.read · scan
p. 167–168Observed case of an inoculated boy sleeping with unprotected children without infecting them.read · scan
p. 169Cases of dairymaids who slept with or nursed others without transmitting cow-pox serve as observed evidence.read · scan
p. 169–171Particular cases and attempted inoculations are recorded as empirical evidence that the same laws govern both diseases.read · scan
p. 179–180Ten inoculation cases supply observed evidence of intermediate changes in the matter.read · scan
p. 181–182Relies on observation, farmers' testimony and experiments to support the conclusion.read · scan
p. 183–184Detailed clinical observation of case supports inference about the irritation of ulcers.read · scan
p. 184–185Conclusions drawn from many observed cases and a dated experimental inoculation.read · scan
p. 185–186Careful daily observation of patients serves as evidence.read · scan
p. 186–187Inoculation revealed what earlier popular belief could not observe accurately.read · scan
p. 187–188Offers case history as proof of the efficacy of the practice.read · scan
p. 193Cites known cases of nurses and a gentleman repeatedly inoculated.read · scan
p. 193–194Conclusions rest on observed clinical trials and individual cases of inoculation.read · scan
p. 194–195Recorded cases are cited as evidence that second attacks occur, against the authority of Heberden.read · scan
p. 196–197Jenner gathers attestations from practitioners' observations to support his claim of protection.read · scan
p. 197–198Large numbers of repeated trials give the observational basis for the conviction that cow-pox protects.read · scan
p. 198–199Experiment on a child tested by later smallpox inoculation confirms the protective effect.read · scan
p. 199–200Jenner tests London-derived matter on country children to compare results with reports from other physicians.read · scan
p. 200–201Observations of the course of vaccine disease in many subjects.read · scan
p. 202–203Experiments on an infant and on a measles patient show how vaccine behaves and that immunity follows.read · scan
p. 204–205Appeals to long dairy experience and his own cases from different cows.read · scan
p. 205–206Jenner arranges an experiment with London cow virus in Gloucestershire to settle the question.read · scan
p. 206Conclusions rest on numerous inoculations and observed cases under his own care.read · scan
p. 206–208Confidence claimed from observing effects across many constitutions, ages three months to sixty years.read · scan
p. 208–209Conclusions drawn from carefully made experiments on hundreds of patients, compared against Woodville's differing reports.read · scan
p. 209–210Conclusions rest on extensive experience and observation of families exposed together.read · scan
p. 210–211Reports of many correspondents' inoculations agree; unchanged virus after eight months is observed rather than assumed.read · scan
p. 211–212Progress of the puncture accurately observed and tested with later smallpox inoculation.read · scan
p. 212–213Correspondents' cases collected to test the generality of the rule and correct a journal assertion.read · scan
p. 214Cases are cited as evidence of vaccine's power even against prior exposure.read · scan
p. 216Experiments with uninfected persons sleeping with or breathing over pustules establish that infection is by contact only.read · scan
p. 217–218Anomalous appearances observed and tentatively explained by friction of clothes; awaits smallpox testing.read · scan
p. 218A correspondent's own case is offered as corroborating evidence from practice among two thousand inoculations.read · scan
p. 219–220Practitioners' repeated observation of scrophulous affections after smallpox and Jenner's careful watching of cow-pox effects ground his conclusions.read · scan

Louis Pasteur, The Physiological Theory of FermentationVol. 38

p. 276Pasteur infers from vintage practice in the Jura that yeast develops largely without oxygen.read · scan
p. 278Describes a carefully designed fermentation experiment with sealed flask, mercury and measured yeast, testing whether yeast needs oxygen.read · scan
p. 279–280Reports measured oxygen solubility in wort and designs a repeat experiment with boiled, deaerated liquid to test the role of air.read · scan
p. 280–281Comparative experiments with deaerated and aerated flasks, dated observations of fermentation's progress under controlled conditions.read · scan
p. 281–282Weighs yeast and sugar fermented with and without air, deducing that aerated liquid yields more yeast and ferments faster.read · scan
p. 283Serial fermentations show older yeast cells begin fermentation later, an observed regularity under controlled conditions.read · scan
p. 284Conclusions rest on microscopic comparison of successive yeast samples.read · scan
p. 285–286Reports an experiment with older yeast and extreme exclusion of air, giving yeast and sugar weights.read · scan
p. 287–288Gas analysis and yeast weights in a shallow-liquid flask show more oxygen absorbed changes the yeast-to-sugar ratio.read · scan
p. 288–289Shallow basin experiments raise oxygen supply and yield the highest yeast-to-sugar ratio, with reasoning about cell layers shading each other.read · scan
p. 292–293Experiments with flasks measure oxygen absorbed by yeast in air; microscope sketches faithfully record observations.read · scan
p. 293–294Detailed experimental data of gas absorption support the argument.read · scan
p. 294–295Mould-growth experiment in sealed flasks weighs plant and measures oxygen absorbed; footnote critiques the accuracy of the data.read · scan
p. 299–300Experiments compare sugar decomposed per yeast formed in air and absence of air.read · scan
p. 300Dated experiment shows yeast multiplying in milk-sugar like a fungus without fermenting, then fermenting wort when brought to it.read · scan
p. 302–303Pasteur describes experiments placing grapes and other fruits in carbonic acid gas, confirming his prediction that alcohol is produced without yeast cells.read · scan
p. 303–305Compares plums kept in carbonic acid gas with plums in air, measuring alcohol yield and heat as evidence of chemical action in fruit.read · scan
p. 305–306Berard's experiments showed fruits absorb oxygen and emit carbonic acid gas, continuing as if by fermentation.read · scan
p. 316–317Details the experimental setup, boiling to expel air, to establish beyond doubt that life persists without oxygen.read · scan
p. 318Careful experimental procedure excluding air, showing the flask stays inert until living ferment is introduced.read · scan
p. 319Observational record of organisms multiplying, gas evolving and carbonate crystals forming in the sealed flask.read · scan
p. 320Measurement of gas evolved and dissolved during fermentation, recorded daily by analysis.read · scan
p. 321–322Analyzes fermentation products and microscopically identifies the nitrogenous organism as the ferment.read · scan
p. 322–323Microscopic observation of vibrios, their size, motion and clustering, compared with young and old yeast.read · scan
p. 324–325Describes the experiment on lactate of lime, boiling out air and impregnating without any contact with air.read · scan
p. 326Shows bacteria consume dissolved oxygen, ensuring the fermenting liquid is free of air, verified by gas analysis.read · scan
p. 327–328Pasteur reports a dated fermentation experiment, showing how differences in the medium alter the growth and speed of microscopic organisms.read · scan
p. 328–329Records a dated experiment and notebook observations of butyric fermentation and the vibrios' movements, without added germs.read · scan
p. 329–330Describes an apparatus for observing vibrios microscopically without air, with careful observational technique and dated measurements.read · scan
p. 331An experiment with a completed fermentation is set up to test whether the deposit remains alive.read · scan
p. 332–333Transfers deposit of completed fermentation to fresh solution and tests air's action on vibrios, giving experimental proof.read · scan
p. 333–334Comparative tests with air and carbonic acid on fermenting liquid show air quickly stops vibrios and fermentation.read · scan
p. 335Observations of 1861 suggested the possibility of life without air.read · scan
p. 337–338Draws on varied observed fermentations, some lacking hydrogen, to test supposed regularities.read · scan
p. 346Microscopic observation shows that ferment cells multiply even in pure sugar solution, answering Liebig.read · scan
p. 347–348Weighed experiments show yeast increases in weight during fermentation of pure sugar solution, evidence of life and nutrition.read · scan
p. 348–349An experiment with washed yeast and boiled-out soluble portions shows the soluble part is organized into new globules that ferment sugar.read · scan
p. 353–354A fundamental experiment decides the controversy over theory.read · scan
p. 356–358Pasteur describes a controlled experiment in pure mineral medium showing the ferments' carbon comes from sugar and nitrogen from ammonia salts.read · scan
p. 358–359Detailed record of a sterilized flask experiment showing pure yeast ferments all the sugar and multiplies in a mineral medium.read · scan
p. 359–360Comparative experiments with different ferments, and repeated tests with purer sugar to answer a doubting colleague, confirm the conclusions.read · scan

Louis Pasteur, The Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine and SurgeryVol. 38

p. 364Serial cultures in sterile fluid, each diluted, then inoculation reproduce anthrax as experimental proof.read · scan
p. 367Experimental observation of thick versus thin layers supports the conclusion; opinions without basis in observation are rejected.read · scan

Louis Pasteur, On the Extension of the Germ Theory to the Etiology of Certain Common DiseasesVol. 38

p. 371Tests his thought by careful experiment with sterile precautions and cultures.read · scan
p. 372–373Careful observation and controlled culture with antiseptic precautions.read · scan
p. 379–380Relies on repeated blood cultures and autopsy observation to reach conclusions.read · scan
p. 381Supports the remedy by Guyon's daily hospital results and joint experiments showing boric acid kills the organisms.read · scan

Joseph Lister, On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of SurgeryVol. 38

p. 258Experience showed acid-killed tissue is absorbed and organized; he grew bolder and improved method without failure.read · scan
p. 258–260Lister relies on a hospital patient's case as evidence for his method, while asking colleagues not to follow blindly.read · scan
p. 260–261Simple dressing experiments on granulating sores are used to establish that pus arises from stimulus, not from granulations themselves.read · scan
p. 262Clinical case offered as evidence that persevering with antiseptic treatment changes the outcome.read · scan
p. 264Blacksmith's case cited as clinical proof of the antiseptic principle.read · scan

9d.Natural history, dispersal and breeding experiments

See also: Animal 3b · Induction 5a · Evolution 5c

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 102–103Firminus's father observed animal births against the heavens to make experiments in astrology.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 343He killed an adder and found the young in cells, confirming it is the viper.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 20Study of variation under domestication gives the best clue to the problem.read · scan
p. 29–30Appeals to breeders' experience: cart horses, cattle and poultry could be bred for unlimited generations.read · scan
p. 33–34Sebright's failed crossing experiments and Darwin's own pigeon crosses serve as evidence against the crossing theory.read · scan
p. 37–38Relies on his own crossing experiments with fantails, barbs and spots.read · scan
p. 76Darwin relies on his own experiment marking 357 seedlings, of which 295 were destroyed.read · scan
p. 79Darwin's own observation and counting of seedlings on heaths near Farnham illustrate cattle's hidden effect.read · scan
p. 81Darwin's experiments with protected clover heads yielded no seed, showing bees' necessity.read · scan
p. 100Darwin tests holly stigmas under the microscope to show bees carried the pollen.read · scan
p. 104Darwin relies on his garden observations and experiments on Lobelia.read · scan
p. 105–106Darwin's experiment raising 233 seedling cabbages, and tabulations by Hooker and Gray, provide evidence.read · scan
p. 116Experiments with grass and wheat plots prove greater yield from diverse varieties.read · scan
p. 117–118Draws on a measured turf plot and Gray's flora lists as observed evidence.read · scan
p. 163Darwin gathers evidence from informants and his own observation and breeding.read · scan
p. 212–213Later observations, such as nerves in mouse ears, revealed functions of supposedly useless parts.read · scan
p. 242–243Darwin cites observations and repeated experiments on Oxalis and Maurandia showing slight movements on touch.read · scan
p. 253Young aphides excrete for ants without prior experience, showing the action is instinctive rather than learned.read · scan
p. 254–255Instinctive fear of enemies is strengthened by experience and by seeing other animals' fear.read · scan
p. 255Young pointers act correctly the first time out, without experience or knowing the end, like true instincts.read · scan
p. 270Experiments following Tegetmeier with wax strips provide observational confirmation.read · scan
p. 271Darwin relies on direct observation and experiment on comb work.read · scan
p. 273–274Darwin's vermilion wax experiment shows the wax delicately diffused by many bees working together.read · scan
p. 290–291Notes few animal experiments have been fairly tried and breeders' admonitions on interbreeding were ignored.read · scan
p. 305Darwin reports his own experiments fertilising flowers legitimately and illegitimately, confirmed by other observers.read · scan
p. 306Darwin raised seedlings from illegitimate unions over four years to test their fertility.read · scan
p. 386–388Darwin experimentally tests seeds in sea water, finding many germinate after long immersion, showing occasional means of dispersal.read · scan
p. 388–389Darwin reports experiments on seed flotation in sea water and Martens' improved trials, weighing evidence to estimate how far seeds could drift and still germinate.read · scan
p. 389–390Darwin's trials show seeds surviving in drift-timber roots, floating bird carcases, and the crops and stomachs of birds and fish.read · scan
p. 391Empirical evidence from locust dung, earth on birds' feet, raised seedlings, showing seeds are transported by animals.read · scan
p. 410Darwin's own observations and experiments with ducks' feet and aquaria show how fresh-water shells are carried across great distances.read · scan
p. 411Darwin's experiment with pond mud, which grew 537 plants from a breakfast cup, supports birds transporting seeds of fresh-water plants.read · scan
p. 419–420Darwin experiments with land shells immersed in sea water to test whether they could be transported.read · scan
p. 445Bates's eleven years of collecting yield observation of deceptive resemblance.read · scan
p. 479Relies on experimental crosses by Gartner and Kolreuter and reciprocal crosses as evidence.read · scan
p. 479Cites his own laborious experiments on crossing and conditions of life.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 35–36Darwin cuts a planarian in two and watches each half regenerate, a familiar experiment repeated.read · scan
p. 67Reports experiments of Hachette and Beudant reproducing fulgurites, used to gauge natural force.read · scan
p. 164–165Darwin repeatedly observes the spiders on specific dates before drawing conclusions.read · scan
p. 189Darwin tests by experiment whether condors smell hidden meat, finding they don't, contrasted with dogs.read · scan
p. 189–190Cites Bachman's and Audubon's experiments with covered offal showing vultures do not find food by smell.read · scan
p. 206Darwin infers function from experiments with a needle, removing polypi and severing heads.read · scan
p. 403Birds have not learned from persecution; earlier travelers' accounts show they were once even tamer.read · scan
p. 404Birds acquire caution gradually through experience; migratory swan brought wisdom from foreign countries.read · scan

9e.Lecture experiments and physical demonstration

See also: Physics 6a · Cause 8c · Hypothesis 2a · Science 3a

George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37

p. 203–204Appeal to optical instruments and dioptrics as evidence about real nature of things.read · scan
p. 204Appeals to experiments with microscope, candle-light and prism as evidence.read · scan

Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34

p. 114–115Newton proves by experiments the impossibility of a plenum.read · scan
p. 122–123Demonstration to the eye by prism and experiments with coloured rays on wood.read · scan

Michael Faraday, The Forces of MatterVol. 30

p. 8Faraday uses simple experiments to convey the notion of force.read · scan
p. 16–17Method of experiment demonstrates centre of gravity, connecting it to everyday standing.read · scan
p. 17–18Faraday recalls a boyhood puzzle from a conjuring book and solves it by experiment.read · scan
p. 19Faraday recalls boyhood experiments with cork balancing and uses demonstrations to teach observation.read · scan
p. 20Experiments with pendulum and falling bottle test and confirm the explanation of apparent differences.read · scan
p. 20–21Successive experiments with air pump and coin demonstrate the principle empirically.read · scan
p. 25Experiments, including hanging his weight on wire, prove the strength of particle attraction.read · scan
p. 26Praises simple boy's experiments as ways to see cohesion.read · scan
p. 29–30Demonstrations of drops bursting a bottle show effects of cohesion experimentally.read · scan
p. 31–32Audience urged to take calc-spar home and test cleavage themselves with a knife.read · scan
p. 38–40Faraday recalls a boyhood ale-house trick of freezing a pot to a stool, explained by salt.read · scan
p. 44Knowledge is to be built up step by step through demonstrated experiments before the audience.read · scan
p. 49Demonstration compares air and oxygen by experiment.read · scan
p. 57Claims are demonstrated by lecture experiments such as burning cotton, guncotton and a mill explosion.read · scan
p. 57–58Experiments with colored flames and underwater fuse burning illustrate laws of chemical affinity.read · scan
p. 58–60Demonstrations by experiment establish how heat is produced.read · scan
p. 61Electrical attraction is shown by rubbing shellac with flannel and observing a suspended ball.read · scan
p. 67–68Claims are proved by experiment, breaking a magnetized steel bar.read · scan
p. 70–71Knowledge is conveyed through demonstrated experiments with phosphorus, Leyden jar and wires, letting the audience see conduction directly.read · scan
p. 81–82Claims are shown by demonstrated experiment with needle, wire and iron filings.read · scan
p. 83–84Proof rests on visible experiment: nails cling when current flows and fall when contact breaks.read · scan

Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30

p. 93Appeals to familiar household experience, such as a towel draining a basin, to illustrate capillary action.read · scan
p. 94–95Uses boys smoking cane and an inverted candle as familiar observations illustrating the principle.read · scan
p. 106Conclusions are drawn from directly displayed experiments, such as testing the smoke and quenching the flame with wire gauze.read · scan
p. 109Encourages the audience to repeat the zinc experiment at home.read · scan
p. 111–112Urges listeners to test at home with a cold spoon or silver dish held over a candle.read · scan
p. 114Invites the audience to repeat the experiments with a poker head or spoon.read · scan
p. 119Demonstrations of potassium, iron and zinc acting on water lead the audience to compare facts and infer for themselves.read · scan
p. 120Learning about bodies by watching the results of iron filings burning and reacting with water.read · scan
p. 123–124Faraday urges the audience to experiment themselves, with care and attention.read · scan
p. 125–126Simple experiments audience may repeat, such as blowing bubbles with hydrogen.read · scan
p. 131Audience is told to watch the experiment and judge the result from observation.read · scan
p. 141Appeals to experience gained in earlier experiments to carry the audience's conviction further.read · scan
p. 151Lime-water turning milky detects a new product of the candle, identical to chalk.read · scan
p. 151–152Experiments with marble and acid reproduce the gas; audience may repeat them.read · scan
p. 154Properties of the gas are established by direct experiment with taper, lime-water and balance rather than appearance.read · scan
p. 155–156Demonstration by visible experiment of the gas's weight and level in the jar.read · scan
p. 159Proof of oxygen in carbonic acid rests on experiment, even when the potassium explodes.read · scan
p. 161–162Apparatus of tubes shows a candle depends on air supply, going out when air is stopped.read · scan
p. 163Experiments with tube and jar demonstrate that a single breath spoils the air.read · scan
p. 166Demonstrated by experiment: oil of vitriol strips water from syrup, exposing carbon.read · scan
p. 168Experiment with guncotton and gunpowder shows substances ignite at different degrees of heat.read · scan

Hermann von Helmholtz, On the Conservation of ForceVol. 30

p. 196–197Everyday cases like matches, rubbed hands and primitive fire-making support the claim that friction produces heat.read · scan
p. 202–204Demonstration experiment shown to the audience with flames and condensing water.read · scan

Hermann von Helmholtz, Ice and GlaciersVol. 30

p. 232Thomson's experiment confirmed the theoretical deduction of freezing point change by compression.read · scan
p. 233–234Uses children's snowballs and an artificial press to illustrate the process.read · scan
p. 235–236Demonstrates by experiment that pressed ice takes the shape of a mould, like glaciers reuniting.read · scan
p. 236–237Experiments demonstrate the properties directly.read · scan
p. 237–238Change of shape is shown before the eye, analogous to glacier behavior.read · scan
p. 238–239Observation through a lens of white lines in ice supports the conclusion about cracks.read · scan
p. 243–244Helmholtz confirms by his own experiments that slight pressure suffices to freeze ice pieces together.read · scan
p. 244Describes a concrete experimental procedure and its observed results.read · scan
p. 244–245Appeals to his experiments and to Faraday's to support the conclusion.read · scan
p. 245–246Reports a five-day loaded-ice experiment and its results.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The Wave Theory of LightVol. 30

p. 258–259Suggests a simple experiment with a teapot and the hands to show radiant heat versus hot air currents.read · scan
p. 266Invites the audience to observe polarisation with their own eyes and training.read · scan
p. 268Audience sees the colours directly with their own eyes; demonstration by instrument rather than argument.read · scan
p. 268–269A hasty, simple experiment performed before the audience yields a result close to the most accurate measurement.read · scan
p. 269–270Urges listeners to make the simple observation themselves with a cheap grating.read · scan
p. 271–272Asks observers to watch the sky in winter and summer to unravel complicated phenomena.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The TidesVol. 30

p. 302Newton's proofs relied on the guinea and feather experiment and pendulums of different substances.read · scan

9f.Care, error and judgment in experiment

See also: Evolution 5d · Life and Death 1d

René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34

p. 55–57Experiments are needed but one man cannot make them all; others' experiments are cluttered, ill described or falsified by their principles.read · scan

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3

p. 298–299A single experiment persuades the senses of the magnetic needle where demonstration cannot.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 103Franklin tests by calculation how many could hear, reconciling doubts about ancient reports of generals addressing armies.read · scan

Edward Jenner, The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against SmallpoxVol. 38

p. 161–162Jenner reflects on the difficulties of conducting decisive experiments and cites confirming testimony for his claims.read · scan
p. 164Jenner's own observation of an epidemic over a year to rule out season or weather as cause of mildness.read · scan
p. 173Until experience determines the distinction, the object is viewed through a mist; time and observation will draw the line.read · scan

Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30

p. 139Warns to trust real facts rather than noise and sounds in judging an experiment.read · scan
p. 144Weighing air by balance, pump and copper bottle, checked to ensure the experiment is correct.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

p. 135Says the balance of evidence in later chapters must judge whether natural selection has acted.read · scan
p. 146–147Darwin insists the kidney bean acclimatisation experiment has not truly been tried, describing how it would be done properly over generations.read · scan
p. 286Darwin critically evaluates Kolreuter's and Gartner's experiments on hybrid sterility, noting sources of experimental error such as castration and seclusion of plants.read · scan
p. 287Darwin weighs conflicting experiments of Kolreuter and Gartner, and explains hybrid fertility by avoidance of close interbreeding, citing his own experiments.read · scan
p. 288–289Herbert's experiments show some hybrids fully fertile, and results differ from Gartner's owing to skill and facilities.read · scan
p. 289Darwin relies on horticulturists' practical crossing experiments and nurserymen's testimony to show hybrids can be fully fertile, against Gartner's belief.read · scan
p. 310–311Gartner's maize and gourd crossing experiments are cited as evidence, with doubt about their trustworthiness.read · scan
p. 311–312Relies on repeated experiments by Gartner, Scott and Kolreuter, weighing hostile witnesses and confirmation.read · scan
p. 313–314Weighs conflicting experiments of Gartner, Wichura, Naudin and Kolreuter, noting a conclusion resting on a single experiment.read · scan

Hermann von Helmholtz, On the Conservation of ForceVol. 30

p. 198–199Series of repeated experiments with improved methods show concordant numerical results.read · scan
p. 199–200Agreement between varied experiments by different observers supports the result.read · scan

Louis Pasteur, The Physiological Theory of FermentationVol. 38

p. 286–287Stresses purity of yeast and liquid and sterilizing precautions needed for successful experiments against contaminating vibrios.read · scan
p. 291Pasteur rebuts Schützenberger by appeal to observed facts, saying his opponent contradicts them.read · scan
p. 307Fremy's forty experiments on germinated barley are dismissed as lacking a substantial foundation.read · scan
p. 313Brefeld's microscope experiments on yeast in carbon dioxide are faulted because he used old brewer's yeast which needs oxygen to revive.read · scan
p. 314Says a few actual experiments would have corrected Brefeld's mistake about butyric vibrios.read · scan
p. 343–344Facts from experiment force older theories (Liebig, Berzelius) to give way, and later experiments overturn Brefeld's doubts.read · scan
p. 354–355Liebig repeated the experiment yet denied the ferment's formation; Pasteur offers to prove it before a commission.read · scan
p. 356Pasteur explains why Liebig's experiment failed: contamination by germs from dust and no careful microscopic observation; exact experimental technique matters.read · scan
p. 360Pasteur shows yeast never turns into penicillium in air; earlier microscopists were misled by illusions.read · scan
p. 361Pasteur repeats Turpin's and Hoffmann's experiments while guarding against errors they ignored, finding yeast does not become penicillium or mycoderma.read · scan

Louis Pasteur, The Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine and SurgeryVol. 38

p. 365–366Failed cultures, contamination and their explanation lead to growing the septic vibrio in a vacuum or carbonic acid.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The Wave Theory of LightVol. 30

p. 260–261Gives precautions for experiment measuring the moon's heat by differential comparison with the sky.read · scan

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The TidesVol. 30

p. 291–293Tide curves from Australia appear independent of the moon until closer inspection shows the lunar relation.read · scan

See also: Cause, Medicine, Science, Physics, Reasoning, Hypothesis