27 
Literature , &c. with Commerce. 
be faid of the arts of dying and printing, by 
which thofe beautiful colours are impreffed on 
cloths, which have contributed fo largely to the 
extenfion of the manufactures of this place. 
How few of the workmen, employed in them, 
poflfefs the lead knowledge of the fcience to which 
their profeffion owes its origin and fupport! If 
random chance has Humbled on fo many im¬ 
provements, what might induhry and experience 
have effected, when guided by elementary know¬ 
ledge ? The misfortune is, that few dyers are 
chemifts, and few chemifls dyers. Practical 
knowledge fhould be united to theory, in order 
to produce the moll: beneficial difcoveries. The 
chemift is often prevented from availing himfelf 
of the refillt of hjs experiments, by the want of 
opportunities of repeating them at large : and 
the workman generally looks down with con¬ 
tempt on any propofals, the fubjeCt of which is 
new to him. Yet under all thefe difadvantages, 
I believe it will be confefled, that the arts of 
dying and printing owe much of their recent 
progrefs to the improvements of men who have 
made Chemiftry their ftudy. Much however re¬ 
mains to be done j and perhaps in no refpeCt are 
the manufactures of this country more defective 
than in the permanency of their colours. Sen- 
fible as our manufacturers are of this defeCV, is it 
not firange, that fo few of them fhould attempt 
to acquire a knowledge of thofe principles which 
would 
