6 INTRODUCTION. 



cessful application of a new substance or a new com- 

 bination to tbe arts ; they see only the result ; and 

 therefore, when even a commendable feeling prompts 

 them to become imitators, they fix upon a result to 

 be arrived at, in total ignorance of the means that 

 ought to be used. Hence they labour for nought, 

 and vex themselves in the pursuit of vanity. 



The necessary consequence is, an artificial state of 

 society, in pursuits, in manners, in the very structure 

 of the mind, and in every thing, whether of occupation 

 or engagement; nay, even in that most important of 

 all considerations, religion itself. The raw material 

 passes from the hand of the producer without much 

 change, or any knowledge of the process by which 

 it is to be made fit for use ; the manufacturer receives 

 it he knows not whence, or from what ; the merchant 

 thinks only of the sale and the profit ; the consumer, 

 of the supply of his necessity, or the gratification of 

 his vanity ; and the gratification is so very evanescent, 

 that hardly has one novelty been received, when an- 

 other becomes necessary. Thus, all is one round of 

 bustle and turmoil, in which, amid a dazzling succes- 

 sion of splendours, there is very little time for thought, 

 and less for engagement, than any one who has not 

 been a careful observer of the state of things would 

 be apt to suppose. In proof of this, it may be stated 

 with confidence, that the community have not got sub- 

 stantially wiser, even in the matter of their pecuniary 

 interests ; for there have been more wild and ruinous 

 speculations, unfounded upon a single well-established 

 fact, within the last ten years, than within any other 

 recorded period of double the duration. All those 



