Humboldt's Essai Geognostiqu^e, 313 



it is to be, or not to be, made with a Brummel collar, or a Peter- 

 sham pocket. In all the sciences, from piquet to political eco- 

 nomy, as Hoyle and Adam Smith have shewn, and even in geology 

 or geognosy, those who either understand, or desire that others 

 should understand, usually state propositions and subjoin reasons ; 

 and, most commonly, when a man writes a paragraph, it is a 

 paragraph, and nothing else. It contains a head, a body, and a 

 tail, much in the manner of a horse, or of one of Cicero's orations ; 

 and does not run out into protuberances, or comprise various 

 heads and tails, or, beginning M-ith the history of a cock, terminate 

 with that of a bull. 



The figure called rigmarole has not generally been held in very 

 particular esteem in the mathematical sciences. It is lucky, 

 however, that it is approved of by the geognosts ; and really 

 there is such an affinity, and a harmony, between the two cate- 

 gories of geognosy and rigmarole, that we begin to think our- 

 selves in error in doubting the utility and adaptation of the 

 manner before us to the matter. We were about to have said, 

 " De grace, Monsieur le Baron, humanisez votre discours, et 

 parlez pour etre entendu." But to what purpose, when there 

 is nothing to be understood? 



We have heard of a man running away with an idea, and we 

 have also heard of an idea running away with a man. We have 

 no great objection to either. But when a man is " run away 

 with" by half a dozen at a time, his sentences and paragraphs 

 are apt to become as disjointed as he himself would be, had he 

 been run away with by as many wild horses. There is a vulgar 

 maxim, called sticking to the point, which has been sometimes 

 recommended, and which might be advantageously applied some- 

 what more widely. As, for example — 



" II resulte de ces considerations g^ni^rales sur les caractcres 

 zoologiques et sur I'otude des corps fossiles, que, malgr^ les beaux 

 et anciens travaux de Camper, de Blumenbach et de Sommering, 

 I'exacte determination specifique des esp^ces, et Texamen de leurs 

 rapports avec des couches tres-rccentes et voisines de la craie, 

 ne datent que de vingt-cinq ans. Je pense que cette etude des 

 corps fossiles, appliquee k toutes les autres couches secondaires et 

 intermtdiaires par des geognostes qui consultent en meme temps 

 le gisement et la composition minerale des roches, loin de ren- 

 verser tout le syst^me des formations d^jk etablies, servira plutfit 

 k etayer ce systeme, a le perfectionner, a en compl<*ter le vaste 

 tableau. On pent envisager sans doute la science g^ognostique 

 des formations sous des points de vue tres-differens, selon que Von 

 s'attache de preference ii la superposition des masses mincrales, 

 k leur composition (c*est-a-dire, k leur analyse chimique et 

 ip^canique), ou aux fossiles qui se trouvent renfermes dans plu» 



