ON NAVAL TIMBER.
PREFACE.
Itmay be thought presumptuous in aperson who has never had the curiosity toperuse the British classic authors on plantingand timber—EVELYN, HANBURY, MARSHALL,MILLER, PONTEY—to make experimentof the public sufferance. The authordoes not, however, think any apologynecessary; as, if the public lose time unprofitablyover his pages, he considers the blameattachable to them, not to him. A writerdoes not obtrude as a speaker does, butmerely places his thoughts within reach.
As the subject, notwithstanding its greatimportance, might, per se, be felt dry and{vi}insipid by the general reader, accustomedto the luxuries of modern literature, theauthor has not scrupled to mix with it suchcollateral matter as he thought might serveto correct the aridity. The very great interestof the question regarding species,variety, habit, has perhaps led him a littletoo wide.
There is one advantage in taking a subjectof this kind, that few professional (literary)critics can meddle with it, furtherthan as regards style and language, withoutexposing their own ignorance. Yetwill the author experience the highestpleasure in being instructed and corrected,wherever his knowledge may be found defective,or when speculation or misconceptionof facts have led him into error. Knowledgeand truth, is mental strength andhealth; ignorance and error, weakness and{vii}disease: the man who pursues science forits own sake, and not for the pride of possession,will feel more gratitude towards thesurgeon who dislodges a cataract from themind’s eye, than towards the one who repairsthe defect of the bodily organ.
CONTENTS.
- Page 1 INTRODUCTION,
- PART I.—STRUCTURE OF VESSELS.
- SECTION I.—...