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PREFACE. 



\T 7HEN we confider the degree of excel- 

 * * lence which many of the practical arts 

 bufied in the treatment of Minerals have 

 reached in England^ and alfo that in the 

 merely fpeculative fciences, we are at leaft on 

 a level with our neighbours on the continent, 

 it cannot but be matter of furprize that, with 

 refpecT: to Mineralogy, the parent of thefe 

 arts, they mould ftand confefledly fuperior to 

 us. That this inferiority on our fide does 

 not originate in any want of ingenuity in 

 our artifts evidently appears by the mafterly 

 productions of a 'Parker and a Wedgeivood. 

 The true caufe lies deeper. Mineralogy is 

 an art, whofe cultivation and improvement 

 requires both fpeculation and practice : the 

 mere theorift will never defcend into the la- 

 borious details of the practical part, without 

 due encouragement or a degree of en- 

 thufiafm, in a country devoted to politics 

 rarely to be met with, and the practical ar- 

 tift feldom pofleffes thofe general principle^ of 

 fcience and extenfive acquaintance with the 

 difcoveries of his cotemporaries that are in-* 

 difpenfably requifite to eftablifh him on a 

 footing of equality with them. On the con- 

 tinent Mineralogy is on. a very different foot- 

 ing. In Sweden and Germany it is confidered 

 as a branch of fcience worthy of the atten- 



A 2 tion 



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