Notices respecting Neiv Books, 381 



He must have been very unobservant of public events of late years 

 who is not aware that statistics may be made use of with equal con- 

 fidence to support any side of any question. Hence the cautious 

 inquirer who really desires to get at some actual and permanent 

 result, will always look with extreme suspicion upon every thing 

 that comes before him with an ostentatious parade of statistics, 

 aware that there is nothing so easily abused, nothing which is more 

 liable to abuse. 



But a perusal of these pages has shown us that mere statistics form 

 but a very subordinate part of the design of the author. A long and 

 intimate practical acquaintance with mines and mining operations in 

 different parts of the world had necessarily led him to amass a great 

 quantity of materials ; the value of which, as a constant object of 

 reference for his own use, led him to feel the utility of a digested 

 and methodized arrangement of those materials, in a permanent 

 shape, for the use of others. But there is found throughout these 

 pages a pervading spirit beyond that merely materialistic and dry 

 one which the title would indicate, and which the professional en- 

 gagements of the author might have led us to anticipate. We per- 

 ceive impressed on every section the idea, not of coal the mere wealth 

 producer, the mere material instrument of the human animal, but of 

 coal as an important agent in promoting civilization. " We take it 

 for granted," are the first words of the introduction, *' that every one 

 who may chance to peruse the summary of statistics of mineral fuel 

 which we have embodied in the present section will be impressed 

 with the immense importance of those substances, particularly as 

 developed of late years ; how vastly enlarged the area and bulk of 

 their production in all countries ; how essential they now are to 

 the comfort of the human family ; how much they have done towards 

 the extension of the useful arts ; how gloriously they have aided the 

 progress of invention and improvement ; how mighty are the results 

 which have followed their increased application." (P. xiii.) And 

 again in p. Ixxxiv. the author justly says; "Respecting the won- 

 drous influence which the employment of mineral combustibles has 

 had, even in our own days, upon the whole world, by the acquisition 

 of new forces ; by the extension of mechanical powers, of manufac- 

 turing capabilities ; by the impulse given to the industrial arts and 

 the creation of new sources of wealth ; by rapid and cheap modes of 

 transportation and enlarged commercial facilities ; above all, by the 

 improved condition of the people, we will not here dilate. Abundant 

 evidence of all these will be found in this volume." It is in the same 

 spirit, and imbued with the same everywhere pervading high moral 

 sentiment, that the author more than once (pp. xiv. and xxxviii) 

 calls attention to the vastly greater importance of iron than of gold 

 and silver, — a truth which it is not by any means beside the mark 

 to touch upon in these days of California-mania. Adam Smith long 

 ago remarked that the adventurer in a silver mine ran every pro- 

 bability of being ruined, but that the adventurer in a gold mine 

 was certain of being ruined. It will not be amiss to put, beside 

 such an authority, the following passage from the work before us : — 



