74 



MINERALOGY. 



for Others the gold and silver of which they are themselves de- 

 nied the enjoyment. Amid so many contradi6lory judgments^ 

 I fancied that your society would pronounce a definitive opi- 

 nion, so as at once to fix the true estimation in which we 

 ought to be holden. I was persuaded that the miners would 

 be covered with laurels and encomiums, by the means of your 

 panegyrics. It appeared to me that you would load us with 

 honours ; and, in short, I entertained a thousand other ideas 

 of the same description, of the futility of which I am now 

 persuaded. I perceive, gentlemen, that, with a determina- 

 tion to have a pluck at our mantle, you set out by revealing 

 our necessities, and endeavour to oblige us to obtain relief,, 

 encouragement, and wealth, by the rugged path of first ex- 

 posing our miseries, and the deficiencies which are to be no- 

 ticed in the fundamental principles of our association. The 

 letter of Egerio Chrysaforo which you have published, has; 

 electrified my spirit. At first sight it appears to be a simple 

 vindication of the miners, in whose favour it offers an empha- 

 tical apology ; but being examined with more eircumspe6lion,. 

 it turns out to be a relation of their calamities, and a detail of 

 the multiplied obstacles by which their progress is impeded. 

 I, at least, suppose it to have been dire6led to such an aim ; 

 and, on this supposition, I find in it a palpable defe6l, which 

 I shall endeavour to demonstrate and supply in the best man~ 

 ner possible. 



" Policy, or it may be fear, or self-love, has occasioned 

 Egerio to avoid the explanation of the sentence in his letter^ 

 in which he observes, that the miners are oppressed by the 

 cruelty of men. The same principles may have inspired him 

 with the idea of pointing out, as the cause of the backward- 

 ness 



