t 2 1 
I can find to the purpose in foreign publications. I have 
long been anxious to compose and to compile a work of 
this description, that shall remain a classic book on the 
subject, and I will endeavour to do it now. 
In treating of the various subjects, it will be fair to 
give notice, that I will not condescend to make this a work 
of mere amusement, for the purpose of sale- — one that 
shall suffice merely, under the show of science, to enable 
the reader to trifle away an hour, and to skim the surface 
of a great many subjects for the purpose of superficial 
and conversation knowledge. Many pages of this work 
to a general reader will be very dull ; but it will be my 
fault if they are not Useful to those who read for improve 
ment. 
I do not propose in the manufacturing papers I shall 
present, whether of my own or of others, greatly to in- 
struct a manufacturer— a man who knows his business ; 
or, by a sudden miracle, to form a skilful manufacturer 
by the perusal of a few theoretical pages. I know too 
well, from my own experience, that this cannot be done ; 
and, I can easily conceive, with what contempt a practi- 
cal man must read a great portion of the papers that pre- 
tend to give knowledge of real processes, among the 
French and English publications of this description. 
What innumerable instructions on the art of dying, for 
instance ! yet I can venture to say, that hardly one paper 
in fifty contains either the processes of practice, or any 
kind of applicable information. Still the collectors of 
these facts are of great use in society s if they fail, it is 
because they are not themselves manufacturers ; and be- 
cause all manufacturers are secret-mongers, who live by 
their processes, and who do not choose to expose them to 
all the world. But many hints of importance are thus 
thrown out to those whose previous knowledge enables 
them to convert such hints to useful purposes : many 
