ix Partnership with Bent ley 89 



knowledge is an education in itself the knowledge of 

 clays, how they will bend, and how they will burn. 



Let us look at a few of the records concerning these 

 years, and see what kind of attention Wedgwood gave 

 to this branch of his work. He possessed himself, at 

 no small expense, of such different earths, stones, and 

 clays in this island, as were then known ; and also 

 of those that could be procured from foreign countries. 

 Upon these specimens he experimented, analysing to 

 the best of his power their chemical constituents, and 

 testing by practical experiment how far they might be 

 made serviceable to his needs. 



The results of his experiments were duly registered 

 and set out in cabinets, so that they could be referred 

 to and taken up for use at any time. It may be added 

 that the specimens left at his death amounted to more 

 than seven thousand, arranged in classes and subdivisions 

 according to the purposes they were capable of answer- 

 ing, or the views with which they were made. His 

 note-books give one a fair notion of his enterprise in 

 this direction. They contain long extracts from both 

 English and Continental authors on mineralogy. Books 

 of travel were ransacked to observe what the authors 

 related as to the various kinds of earth in the lands 

 they had visited ; and they also contain copious ex- 

 tracts from English topographical works. So much for 

 Wedgwood's enterprise and industry in regard to earths 

 and clays. 



In one of his letters to Bentley, with whom he 



