PREFACE. 



IN submitting the following pages to public approbation, or public censure, 

 I avail myself of the accustomed privilege to offer a few prefatory obser- 

 vations ; explanatory, on the one hand, of the motives which led to their 

 preparation ; and deprecatory, on the other, of severity of criticism. 



The labours of the lexicographer greatly differ from those of authors 

 generally. Dr. Johnson has observed, " every other author may aspire to 

 praise ; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this 

 negative recompence has been yet granted to very few. It is the fate of 

 those, who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by 

 the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good ; to be exposed to 

 censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or 

 punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and 

 diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of 

 dictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the 

 slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish 

 and clear obstructions from the paths through which learning and genius 

 press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the 

 humble drudge that facilitates their escape." 



When I commenced collecting materials for the present work, I was 

 induced to undertake the labour from a conviction that something of the 

 kind was greatly needed. At entering on the study of geology, scarcely 

 had I read through a single page, ere I found my difficulties much 

 enhanced by the non-existence of a dictionary containing such technological 

 terms as are peculiar to this branch of science, and, for a time, I was fre- 

 quently obliged to pass over words, without any distinct comprehension of 

 their force or application. Assuredly, some writers on geology have 

 appended a glossary to their productions ; but, I need scarcely say, these 

 are, for the most part, necessarily meagre and ineffectual. The very neces- 

 sity, also, for their insertion, I may, perhaps, claim as one of the strongest 

 arguments in justification of my present attempt. 



It can hardly, however, be adduced as a charge of inattention to the 

 wants of the student, against the writers on geology, that no dictionary 

 relating to its nomenclature has already appeared. Geology may still be 

 regarded as in its infancy ; it is, as it were, almost a creation of the pre- 

 sent century ; it may, not inaptly, be termed a new science ; for, although 



