Curiosity as an Instrument of Love: Thoreau and the Little Owl

“If you would learn the secrets of Nature, you must practice more humanity than others.”

Among the things I most cherish about science is the way it anneals curiosity. True curiosity is an open wonderment at what something is and how it works without emotional attachment to the outcome of observation and experiment. It is only when we cede emotional attachment that we can be truly free from judgment, for all judgment is feeling — usually some species of fear — masquerading as thought. And when...