3-i-i HISTORY OF' MINEUALUGV. 



explain how erroneous and unphilosophical such an opinion is. Bat 

 we may notice that while such a temper prevails among us, our place 

 in this science can never be found in advance of that position which 

 we are now considering as exemplified in the period of Werner and 

 Haiiy. So long as we entertain such views respecting the objects of 

 Mineralogy, we can have no share in the fortunes of the succeeding 

 period of its history, to which I now proceed. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ATTEMPTS AT THE REFORM OF MINERALOGICAL SYSTEMS. SEPARA- 

 TION OF THE CHEMICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY METHODS. 



Sect. 1. Natural History System of Mohs. 



THE chemical principle of classification, if pursued at random, as in 

 the cases just spoken of, leads to results at which a philosophical 

 spirit revolts ; it separates widely substances which are not distinguish- 

 able ; joins together bodies the most dissimilar ; and in hardly any 

 instance does it bring any truth into view. The vices of classifications 

 like that of Haiiy could not long be concealed ; but even before time 

 had exposed the weakness of his system, Haiiy himself had pointed out, 

 clearly and without reserve, 1 that a chemical system is only one side 

 of the subject, and supposes, as its counterpart, a science of external 

 characters. In the mean time, the Wernerians were becoming more 

 and more in love with the form which they had given to such a science. 

 Indeed, the expertness which Werner and his scholars acquired in the 

 use of external characters, justified some partiality for them. It is 

 related cf him, 2 that, by looking at a piece of iron-ore, and poising it 

 in his hand, he was able to tell, almost precisely, the proportion of pure 

 metal which it contained. And in the last year of his life, 3 he had 

 marked out, as the employment of the ensuing winter, the study of the 

 system of Berzelius, with a view to find out the laws of combination as 

 disclosed by external characters. In the same spirit, his pupil Breit- 



See his Disc. Prel. 2 Frisch. Werner's Leben, p. 78. 3 Frisch. 3 



