138 Mr. Ji)hn Taylov's Prospectus 



fluences. All this has, liowever, taken place in England with- 

 out the help of two things, which it may be thought would be 

 most conducive to the end, and which are possessed in other 

 countries celebrated for their skill in mining : — first, the means 

 of public instruction in the sciences upon which the miner 

 founds all his processes ; and, secondly, books in which the 

 art of mining is treated, and the experience of one set of men 

 is transferred to many. 



We have nothing in the whole kingdom analogous to the 

 schools of mines of Germany and Hungary, nor any institution 

 where miners of higher or lower rank can learn their profes- 

 sion ; and, with regard to books upon the subject, nothing can 

 be more meagre than the whole collection of English works, 

 which, indeed, are rather curiosities, and calculated to show 

 what mining once was, than to teach what it ought to be. 



The practical management of mines must always be deputed 

 to those who have gained a most important part of their ex- 

 perience by actual work underground ; and it would be as un- 

 reasonable to expect a landsman to rig and manage a ship, as 

 to place the detail of extensive mines in the hands of those who 

 have not encountered the casualties by which they are beset, and 

 thus acquired the knowledge necessary to overcome or avoid 

 them. 



The education desirable for a miner is then a peculiar one, 

 and must be adapted to go with the necessary labour, and not 

 to supersede it : it should explain and make clear the reasons 

 for each proceeding, not make the scholar unfit for his proper 

 duty ; it should not tend to the paths of theory and dispute, 

 but show that good practices depend upon solid and intel- 

 ligible principle. 



I believe I may easily show that such an education is com- 

 patible, to a considerable extent, with the necessary state of 

 industrious labour; and if I do this, I believe it may be sufficient 

 to recommend the attempt, — for I hardly expect to have it ob- 

 jected that, as great progress has been made without it, in- 

 struction is unnecessary ; nor can we now anticipate any of 

 the exploded arguments against the diffusion of knowledge in 

 general. 



That the improvement has taken place without education 

 cannot, indeed, be urged ; for I have endeavoured to show 

 that it has been the result of a more enlarged communication, 

 which is itself education: and if the effect has been great from 

 what has been imperfectly communicated, there is no diffi- 

 culty, I conceive, in admitting that from a more regular and 

 well digested plan of education much more good would be ob- 

 tained. 



It 



