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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

Experience'has produced sufficient perfection to point out to mankind the modeof obviating both of the ill qualities just pointed out. Reason, however, requires,and experiment has satisfactorily proved that proper and moderate bounds shouldbe set to all principles whatever. A supposed and indeed actually exifting excel-lence will degenerate into absurdity and inconvenience, if carried in the smallestdegree beyond its due and natural limits ; but having now disposed of one moietyof the investigation, the editts of nature and propriety, in respect to the velocityof floating bodies, far as human application has hitherto been able to investigate,w.ll be, in some measure, explained by the examination of a regular course ofexperiments made for that purpose, an account of which will be found in theensuing chapter.

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