Excerpt from The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Vol. 35: Exhibiting a View of the Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the Sciences and the Arts Where men are silent, says an ancient proverb, stones must speak and daily experience adds new confirmation to the saying. And they speak to us, the stones and the rocks, the mountains and the valleys; but each has its own language, and each its own modes of speech; and like the tribes of America, none understands the language of the other, nor is it given to every human intellect to acquire the language of all, and in their peculiar expressions, to find the answer to his queries. Is it to be wondered at, that there is still so much interrogatory, and so little answer that is really understood? But what has been done awakens the hope that something still better and more beautiful will be discovered: let then every one who can contribute his mite to the increase of the general knowledge do so fearlessly: however small it may be, it will not be lost. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.