Be Accurate | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 19, 1878

Be Accurate.

ACCURACY should be considered a cardinal virtue; it necessarily involves being specific. Many a patient has been pushed back to the grave from which he was escaping by the indefinite advice of the physician.

A patient might live so light as to starve himself to death. Carefulness in diet would be interpreted as variously as the judgment of the individuals.

A "little" piece of copperas dissolved in a "little" water is an excellent thing to heal up a sore, yet a piece of copperas as large as a bean, dissolved in a teaspoonful of water, and applied to a sore, would burn it like fire, deep into the flesh, and make a man fairly yell with pain, if applied to some parts of the body. Every child should be early educated to habits of accuracy of statement; to leave a margin, a liberal margin, instead of outrageous exaggerations. Let all statements be within the truth. If you called to see a friend three or four times, don't call it a dozen. If you rode fifteen miles into the country don't call it twenty, but say "at least a dozen." Learn to reduce all your statements, as far as practicable, to facts, figures and forms. State a fact just as you saw it, without comment; if you learned it from another, say nothing positively. Give the exact numbers whenever you can, and in describing a thing put it on paper if possible. In fact, if every child was taught to draw and sketch with a free hand from the first months of going to school very great advantage and amusements could be drawn from it for life. If a love for rough sketching from nature were inculcated and encouraged and cherished it would in after years afford an infinite source of amusement, of interest, and oftentimes of profitable employment. The habit of drawing cultivates close and accurate observation; it strengthens the memory. Moreover to observe accurately and quickly is often of incalculable advantage in business matters.—Sel.