PREFACE, fei 
as a ftander-by would have thought, with 
trying experiments on a feemingly con- 
temptible piece of Hone, found out a guide for 
mariners on the ocean, and fuch a guide as 
no fcience, however fubtile and fublime its 
fpeculations may be, however wonderful 
its conclufions, would ever have arrived at. 
It was bare curiofity that put Sir Thomas 
Millington upon examining the minute 
parts of flowers •> but his difcoveries have 
produced the moft perfed, and moft ufefuli 
iyftem of botany that the world has yet 
feen. 
Other inftances might be produced to 
prove, that bare curiofity in one age is the 
fource of the greateft utility in another. 
And what has frequently been laid of chy- 
mifts, may be applyed to every other kind 
of vertuofi. They hunt perhaps after 
chimasras and impoflibilities, they find 
fomething really valuable by the bye. We 
are but inftruments under the Supreme Di- 
redor, and do not fo much as know in 
many cafes what is of moft importance 
for us to fearch after* But we may he fare 
of 
