302 Reflections on some Miner alogicat Sy sterns* 



principles susceptible of demonstration, and has resolvecf 

 problems, enlightened futurity, and anticipated the results 

 of analysis. 



SYSTEM OF HAUY AND WERNER CONTRASTED. 



By a happv anticipation of chemistry, which has been 

 confirmed by experiment, we owe to the system of latent 

 properties the union of beryl with emerald, granatite with 

 staurolite, as well as the separation of chabasie from anal- 

 cime [both are denominated cubic zeolite by Werner and 

 his disciple Jameson], stylbite [foliated zeolite, Jameson] 

 from mesotype [radiated zeolite, Jameson], and the acan- 

 ticone from thallite. It has left existing the harmony by 

 which nature has united zircon, hyacinth, and zirconite ; 

 garnet and pyrope, quartz and eisenkiesel (iron flint). It 

 has not made a mineralogical species of heliotrope, com- 

 posed, according to Werner, who admits it as a species, of 

 chalcedony and green earth, of prase, which consists ofquartz 

 and straldstein [actinolite, Jameson ; actinote, Haiiv j am- 

 phibole actinote, Brogniart]. It has not placed sapphire 

 and corundum in two different genera; but agreeing with 

 chemistry, and renouncing prejudices, it has not classed a 

 fossil entirely composed of alumine in the siliceous genus 

 merely because it is hard. It lias no repugnance to the 

 admission of the diamond among combustibles. In the 

 argillaceous genus, where the subdivisions are so little cha- 

 racterized, it has not made 3-2 species no more than 14 in 

 carbonated iime, nor two in sulphated lime, or four in sul- 

 phated barytes ; and above all, we have not 103 species m 

 the earthy fossils. It has not transposed a mineral this 

 year to the side of a species from which it was separated in 

 the preceding, and which some mouths after will be chased 

 from the side of its new neighbour to pursue its fortune 

 elsewhere. It has not made different species, the one after 

 the other, traverse the whole fist of minerals, without being 

 able to find where to fix themselves, like those importunate 

 guests, who go every where and whom all persons evade. 

 lis principles are fixed ; and although it occupies more 

 time to pronounce, it virtually decides sooner, as it dis- 

 poses more surely and leaves nothing arbitrary. It neither 

 makes distinctions without differences, approximations [r#p- 

 proc/iemens] without analogies, nor species without cha- 

 racters. 



Notwithstanding, it will not pretend that minerals should 



persevere in retaining a rank which principles refuse them ; 



nor will it deem the circumstance a misfortune, that the 



* * science 



