IV

Preface.

tion to those, whose fituatibns in life, or cornfined education, may have prevented them fromapplying to a subject, which has commonly beenthought of so abstruse and disticult a nature, asto be utterly unattainable without a previousknowledge of many other branches of science.

The principal object in view, throughout thewhole performance, has been to avoid, as muchas possible, all complicated mathematical prin-ciples and calculations, and to elucidate the moststriking particulars, in as popular and easy amanner as the nature of the subject would ad-mit. For this purpose, such parts of the scienceonly have been chosen, as seemed most likely toexcite the curiosity and attention of the unin-formed reader ; and to give him a taste for thosestudies and pursuits, which, besides the practicaladvantages they afford in some of the mostimportant concerns of life, are of the greatestutility in forming and directing the mind, andin inculcating those liberal and enlarged ideas,which exalt and dignify the human character.

In a performance of this kind, which, fromthe nature of the undertaking, must be una-voidably deficient in many particulars, it is notto be expected that a scrupulous exactness hasbeen always observed, or that every illustrationof a subject is strictly scientific. Such a minuteattention would have been incompatible withthe plan of the work, and extremely disticult to

have