380 Reflections on some Miner alogical Systems. 



that appears to have any foundation ! How many do \\t 

 not find against those sciences which have been refined by 

 the lapse of ages^ and which have resisted the persecutions 

 of inquisitors armed with all the severity of bad inten- 

 tion ? If the cavils of certain persons had been listened 

 to against the axioms and definitions in mathematics, we 

 should now, indeed, have been destitute of this route. 

 Others would have deprived us of physics and chemistry, at 

 the same time with the very matter which served them as an 

 object, and, scarcely will it be believed, our'own existence. 

 If we make a thousand steps in advance, and one remains 

 which we are unable to pass, should we for this abandon 

 that which we have already attained ? The philosopher 

 ought at least to wait, and watch with a calm eye and un- 

 shaken patience the moment when nature shall betray itself, 

 if our efforts can effect nothing on it. The state of science 

 is a state of expectation. 



Even when ve have a rigorous demonstration that che- 

 mistry and mineralogy do not correspond in this solitary 

 case, what then shall we say ? In every thing which nature 

 presents to our contemplation, it leads us, by views taken 

 in all directions, to the point where we find ourselves ar- 

 rested. In the mass of our learning, what system compre- 

 hends it entirely ? yet, notwithstanding their imperfections, 

 systems still serve us. No one thing appears better deter- 

 mined than the species in zoology, as it consists in a cate- 

 gorical answer to a very simple question. There are, how- 

 ever, animals respecting which it is still disputed whether 

 they should be admitted as species or varieties. The vege- 

 table kingdom has also its causes of uncertainty. Never- 

 theless, these two kingdoms offer a greater number of cha- 

 racters, as the beings which they embrace are endowed 

 with more marked and more elevated qualities than those 

 which belong to the mineral kingdom. Why then should 

 more rigour be required of the latter, with less means ? 

 Why is it wished to deprive us, on a single deposition 

 against it, of a system which is supported on mathematics 

 and confirmed by chemistry ? 



Ferriferous carbonated lime * is a mineral often cited by 



those 



* Brown spar of Jameson, sidero calcite of Kirwan, chant cqrlonotfe 

 bfttirisfante oi Brogtiiart, who makes it the ninth subspecies of carbonated 

 lime (or calcareous spar), and separates it from what he calls for spithicjiie, 

 or sparr; iron, which he arranges among the metals, on account of its su- 

 perior ' .ty, and its power of occasionally attracting the magnet. 

 The property oi b( own when exposed to nitric acid or the fire, 

 „;cs the above name ; but this is cemmoo to both kinds. 



This 



