23 
the arbiter of the difficult problems which daily present 
themselves ? 
From the examples above adduced I trust that I shall be 
justified in asserting, that a communication of knowledge, whether 
of the principles or of the practices involved in mining, must be 
attended by great pecuniary gain to the country at large. We 
shall be met, in the outset, by the argument more suited to the 
Cape Boer or the Chinese than to the progressive Anglo-Saxon, 
that because our fathers have done very well without it we 
may easily dispense with any such innovation ; and that the 
immense mineral production of Britain is the best proof that 
we need not to follow the example of nations unable, with 
all their schooling, to rival us in that respect. But let us not 
overlook the great natural advantages with which we have been 
favoured, nor forget, that although individual perseverance has 
done much, very much, among us, we must still depend for 
advancement in a great degree on the experience of others. In 
good truth “ he that neglects the culture of ground naturally 
fertile is more shamefully culpable than he whose field would 
scarcely recompense his husbandry : and it is as rational to live 
in caves till our own hands have erected a palace, as to reject all 
knowledge of architecture which our understandings will not 
supply.”* 
Taking even the present state of our knowledge as a standard, 
let us balance the argument on such crucial questions as the 
following. Do cases occur in which mineral substances are 
neglected from ignorance of their nature ? Is it true or not, 
that others are wasted and lost to the nation by the character of 
the present operations ? Do not crowds of well-meaning adven- 
turers rue their introduction to the mining schemes of impostors ? 
Are not hundreds of human lives sacrificed to a want of precau- 
tion and prudence? Is not the condition of machinery and 
apparatus in a great part of the country very inferior to certain 
now existing models? Are there not numerous sources of 
wealth lying unemployed from the uncertainty consequent on a 
* Johnson. Rambler, No. 154. 
