56 ON THE ART OF MAKING WINE. 



which they are founded, without which, all at- 

 tempts must either be futile, or must at least be 

 regulated by chance, giving results, which will 

 seldom obey the previous intentions of the manu- 

 facturer. The reader, who shall be -at the pains 

 of comparing what has now been said on our do- 

 mestic fruits, with the more detailed theoretical 

 and practical views laid down in the first part of 

 this esjay, will easily form for himself a correct 

 set of rules of practice. It is in vain to say, that 

 correct rules can be laid down in an abstract form, 

 and capable of easy application, or that the prac- 

 tice may be rendered perfect, independently of 

 the theory. Circumstances of a most evanescent 

 nature, and, although important, often unheeded, 

 necessarily interfere with all positive rules, and 

 new cases are continually occurring, for which no 

 previous rules can be given. He who is acquaint- 

 ed with the theory of the art, is always in posses- 

 sion of that light which will alone guide him 

 through the intricacy of new cases, and of unex- 

 pected results. With the small apparatus of a 

 theory, he has it in his power to do that without 

 difficulty, and without labour, which he, who is 

 destitute of theory, can seldom execute, even with 

 the cumbrous and generally unintelligible appara- 

 tus of a set of fixed canons. 



In making wines, as it is to be supposed that 

 the fabricator has previously adopted some gener- 

 jal views regarding the species of wine he proposes 



