PREFACE.

...attains the ability to walk in their footsteps. But when one aspires to become capable of more than one kind of work, it is rare that one can follow them all at once in a single location; there, one is subject to seeing nearly the same things repeated, and to spending a part of one's life confined within a circle of rather limited knowledge. When one then comes to change departments original: "département." In the 18th-century administrative sense, this refers to a specific geographic region or a particular branch of engineering responsibility., one finds oneself in the unfortunate position of not knowing today what one must do tomorrow; which cannot fail to happen when the mind is not at all prepared for the sequential progress of the work. From this, one can conclude that it is only by dint of long experience that one succeeds in acting on one's own; unfortunately at an age where one is hardly in a state any longer to make use of what one has acquired through such a sluggish path.

The only resource remaining when one is born with emulation original: "émulation." In this context, it refers to a drive to excel and equal the achievements of masters in the field. for one's craft is to study the treatises that comprise it, if one is fortunate enough to find some capable of satisfying a sound mind that is not content with the mere surface original: "l'écorce des choses," literally "the bark or rind of things." Bélidor is criticizing superficial technical manuals. of matters; but where are these treatises! Not all subjects have yet been developed; except for those concerning Mathematics, how do most others fare? Hence it follows that when one wishes to execute what closet study original: "l'étude du cabinet." This refers to theoretical study conducted in a private study or library, away from the actual construction site. has taught, one does not know how to go about it; this justifies that common sentiment that practice alone can form men, and that theory hardly serves to sketch them out. If one pays attention, one will see that this defect stems much less from the difficulty of instructing oneself through books than from the fault of those who composed them; because they have only skimmed the subject, whether through laziness in saying enough, or most often for not having...