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Xiv PREFACES TO THE FIRST AND SECOND editions.

men of sense with the study of an important and interesting science; a science that has for its immediate object, the structure of the planet which the Author of nature has destined for our abode, and an acquaintance with the situation of its various mineral productions, subservient to the wants or enjoyments of man in civilized society.

The advice of Cicero to the cultivators of moral science, applies with peculiar force to the geologists and mineralogists of the present day. "In these natural and laudable pursuits, two errors are particularly to be avoided: the first, not to confound those things of which we are ignorant with those we know, or rashly to yield our assent without due investigation; the second, not to bestow too much labour and study on obscure, intricate, and unprofitable subjects." "In hoc genere et naturali et honesto duo vitia vitanda sunt: unum, ne incognita pro cognitis habeamus, hisque temere assentiamur (quod vitium effugere qui volet adhibebit ad considerandas res et tempus et diligentiam). Alterum est vitium, quod quidam nimis magnum studium multamque operam in res obscuras atque difficiles conferunt, easdemque non necessarias."-Cic. Offic. i. 6.

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