In the chapter Ethics of Perception, Henry David Thoreau attests to the importance of “being forever on the alert” , and of “the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen”. This exercise may enable one to create remarkably minute descriptions of a sunset, a battle between red and black ants, or the shapes taken by thawing clay on a sand bank: but its primary value lies in the way it affects the quality of our experience. (Walden, IV)
