PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



whether apprehended by the mind or stored up for us in 

 books, so, from the multiplication of our means, in conse- 

 quence of the present general diffusion of knowledge, the 

 latest knowledge, if properly chosen, will be, most probably, 

 the best : for it is by the united, as well as insulated, expe- 

 rience of a large number of observers, accurate ones of 

 course, that the greatest certainty in every kind of know- 

 ledge, science, is to be attained. For these reasons it is, 

 the ) paucity of observers in ancient times, and from the scanty 

 data on which they reasoned, that few of their deductions 

 in any science can be depended upon. Therefore, modern 

 knowledge must be preferred to ancient. Some centuries 

 hence, in all probability, the same opinion will be held of 

 much of our present knowledge, as is now entertained by 

 us concerning that of the ancients. We can, of course, only 

 reason from what we know; all ages and all countries have 

 done the same: that man is a progressive being, what we 

 know of him incontestibly proves. 



$3= The preceding worhs, as well as the Family Cyclo- 

 paedia, (for a notice of which see the end of the volume.) are 

 to he obtained of Messrs. Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, 

 23, Paternoster row. 



