One Thousand Experiments, SiC 3-57 



There is a quarto plate fronting the title-page, which appears 

 to us the best representation of Pandemonium yet contrived. 

 It leaves Fuseli's genius far behind. This picture professes to 

 exhibit the " drawing the retorts at the great gas-light esta- 

 blishment, Brick-lane," but of their construction and arrange- 

 ment it communicates no definite idea. We see only a parcel 

 of naked red figures, "smirched with fire," plunging huge pitch- 

 forks into the flames, and a number of black pot-lids, hang- 

 ing apparently from a great iron pipe, with the moon peeping 

 through a grated window, shedding disastrous twilight on the 

 infernal scene. The publishers, however, are well aware that a 

 flaming frontispiece often helps off" a very indifferent book. 



The author, if this monstrous production can be traced to 

 any individual parent, not only disclaims all pretensions to 

 methodical arrangement, but speaks with sovereign contempt 

 of all system. " Regarding the order of the work, he would 

 say, that, notwithstanding the elaborate researches and ingenious 

 speculations of many learned men in the several departments 

 of chemical science, there are very few phenomena so perfectly 

 developed as to admit of a systematic arrangement of the 

 principles deduced from them ; consequently, any attempt at 

 forming a system, where the foundation and other parts of the 

 superstructure are incomplete, would prove abortive. It is for 

 this reason that attempts to systematize chemistry have in every 

 instance been productive of failure*." 



We congratulate Mr. Colin Mackenzie on his perfect eman- 

 cipation from the trammels of order, and we trust that the fate 

 of his disorderly experiments will in future prevent raw hands 

 from meddling with such dangerous articles as acids, alkalis, 

 crucibles, and chlorine. Bat his modesty is as meritorious as 

 his method. " The author, at the commencement, perceived 

 that a strict adherence to the accounts and opinions even of the 

 most approved chemical writers would be far from satisfactory 

 to iriMSELF ; and would, in many cases, prove delusive to his 

 readers. He likewise foresaw that, although a general reader 

 might, without further inquiry, acknowledge, or allow as true, 

 every process and fact comprehended in the following multitudi- 

 nous assemblage ; some who should honour his labours by a 

 perusal) might be more fastidious ; and, by calling in question 

 the truth of a few particular facts, processes, or opinions, 

 might be apt to pass sentence of condemnation upon the whole. 

 These considerations, conjoined with an ardent desire, which he 

 himself had, of becoming practically acquainted with several 

 of the chemical arts, induced him, on many occasions, to seek 

 for information at its ultimately genuine source, viz., the work- 

 shop of the artisan t." To make this delusive profession still 



* Prffocc,p. IV. f Idem. 



