450 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Nothing, perhaps, would have a greater tendency to pro 
mote mining interests throughout the world than for practical 
and scientific men to meet on common grounds, where their 
conflicting views can be reconciled, and where each can take 
their appropriate work in solving the problem. That there are 
scientific principles underlying the notions of practical men 
there can be no doubt, and if these principles were explained 
to them, it would be an incalculable benefit. If science, then, 
would content itself with explaining these principles of natural 
phenomena, leaving the application of them to practical men, 
the practical and scientific departments of mining might be 
harmonized and worked together for one common end; that is 
the development of the mineral resources of the earth. 
It was my misfortune to be sent to the mines to earn my 
living when not quite ten years of age. I had to commence 
with the simplest forms of mining and work my way through 
a regular course of practical training for a miner’s occupation 
and a miner’s life. With but very little education, and no 
prospect of positions of honor or profit in this life but what 
were found in connection with this branch of industry, I re¬ 
solved to master the art of mining, and gain if possible some 
of its rewards. 
Inheriting the native instincts, and receiving as a legacy the 
experience of a long line of ancestry, whose origin dwindles 
out and is lost in the history of the Cornish mines, I entered 
upon this work, laying hold of anything that would aid me. 
It was here I first observed the conflict between scientific and 
practical theories. Prejudiced by early education and associ¬ 
ations against the theories of scientific men, I shunned for some 
time all scientific books, and yielded slowly to the teachings 
of nature, not knowing then that science was nature properly 
interpreted. In the progress of this practical training, like 
every other miner I was brought in contact with the richest 
phenomena of the natural world. The harmony and order 
that pervaded these phenomena, and their conformity to some 
general principles unknown to practical men attracted my at¬ 
tention and called forth my admiration. From this time I be- 
