ON TIMBER, &c. 255

but by the repeated proofs that practical men havegiven.

|| Fifth, We can but lament that the professedly wisemen of the present day should so much content them-selves with the relation of the opinions and experimentswhich ancient authors have supplied, without producinga single proof of their own researches and practical de -monstrations ; as if these sages had already dried upthe fountain of discovery, or that nothing more wasneeded to he known; especially as the natural resourcesof such men in general (particularly those who have afew r unmeaning letters at the end of their names) are somuch more compatible with the subject, as to time andw ealth, than the practical artificer, who have fewer meansor opportunities to explore causes and effects, except itbe in the execution which he is daily called to engagein. But perhaps the reply with these persons will be,that the vast labour and expense attendant on all suchexperiments, on a large scale, which is the only planlikely to be useful, would far exceed the abilities of in-dividuals, who might otherwise be disposed to investi-gate this useful branch of mechanical knowledge. Andthis objection, say they, has been the only cause why solittle has been done to determine by experiment this all-important subject.

Admitting the whole of this plea, that the scale whichis nearest to full size on which any experiments are made,to be indubitably the most conclusive, and also that suchexperiments are always attended with considerable ex-pense, likewise readily admitting that there are some ofthe sterling sons of art (and Mathematicians among therest) who are not very w ealthy ; for it has been proved amournful truth, that

Artists are seldom bom with golden lockets ;

Oft those most rich in skill, most poor in pockets.