In this work, as well as in all my other philosophical writings, I have
made it a rule not to conceal the _real views_ with which I have made
experiments; because though, by following a contrary maxim, I might have
acquired a character of greater sagacity, I think that two very good
ends are answered by the method that I have adopted. For it both tends
to make a narrative of a course of experiments more interesting, and
likewise encourages other adventurers in experimental philosophy;
shewing them that, by pursuing even false lights, real and important
truths may be discovered, and that in seeking one thing we often find
another.

In some respects, indeed, this method makes the narrative _longer_, but
it is by making it less tedious; and in other respects I have written
much more concisely than is usual with those who publish accounts of
their experiments. In this treatise the reader will often find the
result of long processes expressed in a few lines, and of many such in a
single paragraph; each of which, if I had, with the usual parade,
described it at large (explaining first the _preparation_, then reciting
the _experiment_ itself, with the _result_ of it, and lastly making
suitable _reflections_) would have made as many sections or chapters,
and have swelled my book to a pompous and respectable size. But I have
the pleasure to think that those philosophers who have but little time
to spare for _reading_, which is always the case with those who _do_
much themselves, will thank me for not keeping them too long from their
own pursuits; and that they will find rather more in the volume, than
the appearance of it promises.

I do not think it at all degrading to the business of experimental
philosophy, to compare it, as I often do, to the diversion of _hunting_,
where it sometimes happens that those who have beat the ground the most,
and are consequently the best acquainted with it, weary themselves
without starting any game; when it may fall in the way of a mere
passenger; so that there is but little room for boasting in the most
successful termination of the chace.

The best founded praise is that which is due to the man, who, from a
supreme veneration for the God of nature, takes pleasure in
contemplating his _works_, and from a love of his fellow-creatures, as
the offspring of the same all-wise and benevolent parent, with a
grateful sense and perfect enjoyment of the means of happiness of which
he is already po