118. Mr. Williams, and his Annotator Dr. Millar. 
consistency or practicable utility, with the original work, into 
which they were thus to be foisted. 
In this way it is plain, that the generality of the readers and 
approvers of a Work, thus at second-hand, the original of which 
they may have never seen, may have but inadequate notions, 
of the real and comparative knowledge and merits of the de- 
ceased Author, and his original work, and are thereby prevented 
from discovering the full amount of injustice which the Annota- 
tor or others, may have done the Author; and under these cir- 
cumstances, considerable time may elapse, before any one stands 
forwards, in such works as yours, or otherwise, to vindieate- the 
deceased Author’s credit, and put the public more fully in pos- 
session of the results of his labours. 
I have thus far spoken generally, in order now to attempt to 
apply a good deal of what has been said, to the case of the late 
Mr. Jonn WituiaMs, a practical Miner and Collier, who in 
1789, put to press in Edinburgh, near to which city he then re- 
sided, the result of more than 40 years’ experience in his pro- 
fession, and of unwearied research and inquiry, as to the Geo- 
logical facts of almost every part of the British Islands, &c. under 
the title of “ The Natural History of the Minerat Kinepom,” 
&c. in two volumes, octavo. 
Mr. Williams did not in his day, auy more than a great part 
of the practical Miners, Colliers and Geologists of the present 
day, sce, that any great good could result, from going into the 
nice technical distinctions of Minerals, under a very: great variety 
of genera and species, far beyond the purposes of useful Geology 
or practical Mining (which Mineralogical refinements were be- 
ginning to be fashionable about the time he wrote, and have since 
greatly increased) ; such as could repay him for the labour and 
research necessary for making these distinctions, or for the di- 
version from his ordinary pursuits, of more practicable and useful 
kinds, which such an application to technical mineralogy would 
have occasioned. 
Accordingly, most of those who have expected to find in Mr. 
Williams’s Book, announced as above, any thing like @ minera- 
logical System, or laboured technical descriptions of Minerals, 
much less a Geological System founded on nice Mineral distinc- 
tions, have been somewhat disappointed: the end and aim of the 
Author, having been very different, viz. that of detailing in plain 
and simple language, the chief phenomena of the Earth, re- 
garding its Strata (those accompanying Coals in particular) 
their contortions, dislocations, and interesting Veins (those con- 
taining Metallic Ores in particular) Mountains, Volcanoes, &c. &c. 
In the year 1810, a.second Edition of Mr. Williams’s Book 
was. 
