as a Branch of Naturul History^ ^c, /• 227 



ther in such a manner, that those, according to the definition of 

 De Candolle, which are tlie nearest in the order of nature should 

 be also the nearest in books. Hence it follows, that while, in 

 an artificial method or system, the naturalist is at liberty to use 

 and arrange his characters, as he thinks best suited to his pur- 

 pose ; in the natural method, for there is in fact but one such, he 

 is obliged to study the natural analogies, to discriminate the re- 

 lative importance of the various characters, and to adapt his 

 plan to the plan of Nature herself. He has not to invent a clas- 

 sification, but to find that which really exists. 



§ 80. As the natural method rests upon the subordination or 

 relative importance of characters, we must now endeavour to ex- 

 plain how a knowledge of this subject is to be attained. But it 

 is necessary previously to point out, in a few words, the various 

 mistaken opinions which have been at different times adopted in 

 mineralogy, as to what was to be understood by the importance 

 of a character, of a property, or of a set of properties. 



§ 31. In minerals, according to all the ancient mineralogists, 

 and also their successors, the most useful and precious of the 

 constituent parts were considered as the most important : hence 

 those lead and copper ores containing a minute proportion of 

 gold or of silver, were classed in the genera Gold and Silver ; 

 hence the assigning a greater importance to the element forming 

 the base in a chemical combination, because it is in general the 

 most useful in the arts ; hence, in fact, the greater importance 

 given to the abstract idea of substance, than to the physical and 

 external properties of minerals. 



§ 32. At a later period, and when it was first attempted to 

 introduce into the study of mineralogy something of that philo- 

 sophical reasoning that had been found so advantageous in the 

 other branches of natural history, the first step was to fix what was 

 to be understood by the term Species, which gave rise to the ever- 

 lasting controversy between the adherents of the chemical and 

 those of the physical characters. The determination of mineral 

 species was the field of battle of the two contending parties. And 

 it is curious to observe, that what was meant by a classification 

 of minerals founded on chemical composition, or on crystallo- 

 graphy, or on external characters, was not meant of the whole 

 of the system or method, as it would have been the case in 



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