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PREFATORY ADDRESS. 9

treated of are so connected and interwoven the one with the other, has necessarily required much refleétion. Great care has been taken, in the arrangement adopted, to lead the mind of the reader from the discussion of such substances as are simple, to those that are of a compound nature; the praétically useful observations unfolding

themselves as the work advances.

Contrary to the system of modern oratory and book- making, perspicuity, and its constant attendant, brevity, have been uniformly adhered to, under the conviction,

that clear ideas are best expressed by the fewest words.

“ Now asseveravi qua vastitas hujus scientie contineret cunéta me diélurum sed quedam: nam illud in unius hominis prudentiam cadere non poterat; neque enim est

ulla disciplina aut ars, qui singulart consummata sit ine

genio.

COLUMELLA; lib. v. f. 166.