Page:Treatise on Soap Making.djvu/68

52 easiest and most simple part of the business, the boiling; although by the ignorant and unwary conceived to be the principal requisite, and containing the whole mystery of the trade. As a proof of which, I take the liberty to mention, that it is within the compass of my knowledge, of several instances having occurred, where common excisemen, from their mere observations taken while attending, in the line of their duty, upon a soapwork, have had the daring presumption to pretend a complete knowledge of soap-making; in consequence of which, have had the address to induce several individuals of fortune to risk their money in an unknown and dangerous undertaking, confidently relying upon the false skill of those self-taught gaugers as conductors and managers.

A short time, however, was always sufficient to convince, by woeful experience,