Introduction to the Study of Mineralogy, 39 1 



worthy of being received by minds naturally inclined to in- 

 quiries susceptible of precision and vigour, presenting in- 

 genious combinations, and a collection of facts closely con- 

 nected with each other. 



To such minds mineralogy presents itself under a new 

 aspect. It is a picture which is embellished by the mere 

 habit of seeing and studying it ; in which Nature exhibits 

 herself, as she does every where else, under an aspect which 

 claims for the Creator the tribute of our homage and admi- 

 ration. 



Mineralogy embraces a multitude of productions which 

 human industry has not yet been able to mould to the wants 

 or pleasures of life, without a certain study of their cha- 

 racters and of their nature, and without which art could 

 not possibly clear the paths of science. From the earliest 

 times the collection of these familiar productions had been 

 subdivided into stones, salts, bitumens, and metals. The 

 methods of the mineralogist are, as it were, the first out- 

 lines of a picture. The working of metallic substances had 

 shown several essential differences which distinguish them. 

 Among the stones there have been composed numerous 

 groupes under the names of marbles and gems, which, not- 

 withstanding the disparity of the bodies which they served 

 to connect with each other, were attempts at the formation 

 of the genera which subdivide the classes. Certain proper- 

 ties, remarkable from their being elicited under certain cir- 

 cumstances only, have not escaped attention : the attraction 

 exercised by amber when rubbed over light bodies, and the 

 kind of sympathy between iron and the magnet, which had 

 been considered as a simple stone, have all been observed. 

 Even the forms of crystals were not wholly unknown to the 

 ancients: that of rock crystal and of the diamond have been 

 distinctly alluded to by Pliny*. The regular polyhedrons, 

 which at present excite our admiration from their multitude 

 and diversity, were then also remarked as wonderful singu- 

 larities. 



It is only since the commencement of this century, how- 



# Hist. Nat. 1. xxxvii. c. 2 ft 1. 



B b 4 ever, 



