PREFACE. 



OF the various books published on that important and national subject the 

 Steam Engine, there is not one in our own or any foreign language, which I 

 consider as a fully satisfactory illustration of its principles ; it is therefore only 

 requisite for me to state this fact to render any apology unnecessary for the work 

 I now offer to the notice of the Public. I have frequently and successfully 

 claimed attention as an author ; and in this case I hope to meet with equal 

 success, and to show by the labour and attention I have bestowed on this im- 

 portant subject, how highly I value the ostensible character I have acquired, 

 and the extensive encouragement I have received. 



It has been too common of late for mathematicians to complain of want of 

 patronage, and to censure official authorities for not encouraging science, for- 

 getting that research will always be estimated by its intermediate utility ; and 

 while they continue to confine their attention to abstract knowledge, while they 

 do not devote a greater part of their time to its application to the wants and 

 the welfare of society, they must be contented with a small share of those ad- 

 vantages, which result from combining with practical skill the power afforded 

 by abstract reasoning. They should recollect that a Watt could have earned no 

 fame, in an age or in a country where the value of mechanical power was unknown. 

 In following the application of science to art, I have not, however, I hope, been 

 unsuccessful in adding also to the stores of pure science ; and, so far from being 

 insensible to the value of abstract research, I wish it to be pursued with redoubled 

 vigour by those who have spirit to break through the prejudices of existing 

 systems, and study from nature : but it should be cultivated with a desire to 

 promote the great end of human research, that is, the improvement of the con- 

 dition of man ; otherwise the fantasies of the Greek philosophers might with 

 equal force claim the student's regard. 



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