AND RESEARCHES OF JAMES SMITHSON. 139 



rooms, furniture, pictures, statuary, and other objects of 

 taste. 



In a tract upon knowledge, he takes occasion to remark, 

 that men may consider themselves as having four sources 

 of knowledge : 1st. Observing. 2d. Reasoning. 3d. In- 

 formation. 4th. Conjecture. It is evident that in his own 

 acquirements in knowledge, he followed this order of pro- 

 ceding, and did not, as many have done, both before and 

 since his time, begin with conjecturing, proceed next, to ask 

 information ' as to the opinions of others, receiving, as sound, 

 all those which tally with the conjecture, and rejecting the 

 rest, and end with attempting to reason themselves into a 

 belief that this mass of crude fantasies constitutes philoso- 

 phy. Smithson began the process of acquisition by obserr- 

 ing. For this purpose he made a number of tours or scien- 

 tific journeys, taking, as opportunity offered, careful obser- 

 vations of all interesting facts. 



It was in 1784, (now sixty years since,) that, in company 

 with Mr. Thornton, Monsieur Faujas De St. Fond, the cele- 

 brated French philosopher, and the Count Andrioni, he 

 made one of these tours, through New Castle, Edinburg, 

 Glasgow, Dunbarton, Tarbet, Inverary, Oban, Arross, Tur- 

 tusk, and the island of Staffa. In all these places observa- 

 tions on the evidences of geological structure, on the min- 

 eral contents of rocks, on the superposition of beds, on the 

 methods of mining, smelting ores, and conducting manu- 

 facturing processes, were made with all the minuteness 

 which the arrangements of the journey could permit. 



The period of two generations of men elapsed since the 

 journey to Fingal's cave was undertaken, has seen a vast 

 accession of strength to that ruling passion which now 

 sends forth the votaries of geology of all countries, with 

 hammer and knapsack, to explore alike the desert and the 

 fertile field, to indulge in the luxury of toilsome wander- 

 ings, soiled apparel, hard lodgings, and scanty fare. 



The hardships and privations of such expeditions were, 

 at that day, not so often encountered as at present, because 

 the expeditions themselves were seldom undertaken. Still, 

 it would, even in our own time, be thought a very respect- 

 able piece of hardihood and scientific self-denial, to en- 

 counter such risks and privations as are here and there 

 jotted down in Smithson's journal, in relation to this visit 

 to the island of Staffa. 



The party had arrived at a house on the coast of Mull, 

 opposite the island. The journal proceeds : 



