Reflections on some Mineralogical Systems'. 389 



telescope, nor the chronometer, for they also are very dif- 

 ficult to execute. Let us content ourselves with dress- 

 ing, sleeping, and eating, convinced that without the pen- 

 dulum and the telescope the stars will continue their 

 course, and bring back the hours of sleep and the restora- 

 tion of our powers. 



The last objection to which I shall pay any attention is 

 that which says, briefly, " We must abandon the system of 

 M. Haiiy for that of the external characters, as the inte- 

 gral molecule cannot be observed in all minerals. " One of 

 the great advantages of the system of M. Haiiy, one of 

 its principal beauties, is to follow nature, and to speak as she 

 does. Where she has finished her work in the highest 

 manner of which it is susceptible, M. Haiiy does the 

 same; and if she produces a mineral endowed with all the 

 characters which, according to us, compose the most per- 

 fect state, it is classed and defined as such. If she has 

 been sometimes less rigorous in impressing her mark of 

 perfection, the system follows the same course; while the 

 method of external characters renders equally the honours 

 of rigorous classification to sapphire and to the alumina of 

 Halle. To say that we should make no use of an excellent 

 system because cases occur where it is unavailable, is to say 

 to a patient, Lie not on a feather bed ; for, if you are de- 

 prived of it, you will be reduced to the necessity of sleep- 

 ing on a board. It is to tell a man in health not to take 

 nourishment, for if the provisions become deficient he 

 could no longer eat. 



WERNERIAN TRANSITION OR PASSAGE. 



Before terminating these considerations on the species, 

 there is a mineralogical being of which it is necessary 

 to say a few words. It is a being which is neither of this 

 nor that species, but belongs to all. It is not sapphire, for 

 instance, but it resembles it; it is not ruby, but it would 

 be perhaps if it were not something else. It is so consti- 

 tuted that, with a real and material existence, it lives by 

 borrowing, as to its modifications, and puts on the cha- 

 racters of others. It is a hermaphrodite mineral; an infant 

 with two fathers that both disown it ; that the other king- 

 doms of nature reject as a monster; but that mild and 

 easy mineralogy has received into its bosom, and called it 

 passage. 



There are two manners of conceiving the existence of 

 this interesting refuse of the organized kingdoms. 



Let us first suppose a mineral less hard, less brilliant, less 

 2 B 3 blue 



