VI

PREFACT..

riety of experiments, she became better aciquainted with the principles of that science,and began to feel highly interested in its pur-suit. It was then that she perceived, in at^tending the excellent lectures delivered at

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the Royal Institution, by the present Pro-fessor of Chemistry, the great advantagewhich her previous knowledge of the subject, 1slight as it was, gave her over others who hadnot enjoyed the same means of private in-struction. Every fact or experiment attractedher attention, and served to explain some'theory to which she was not a total stranger;and she had the gratification to find that the'numerous and elegant illustrations, for which,that school is so much distinguished, seldomfailed to produce on her mind the effect forwhich they were intended.

Hence it was natural to infer, that familiarconversation was, in studies of this kind, amost useful auxiliary source of information ;and more especially to the female sex, vhoseeducation is seldom calculated to preparetheir minds lor abstract ideas, or seiuttificlansuage.

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