M. Berzelius on Tho7ite and Thorina. SOT 



lunar motions the changes which he has predicted, and of which 

 he was alone able to assign the cause. The continued observa- 

 tion of the satellites of Jupiter will perpetuate the memory of 

 the inventor of the theorems which regulate their course. 

 The great inequalities of Jupiter and Saturn pursuing their 

 long periods, and giving to these planets new situations, will 

 recal without ceasing one of the most astonishing discoveries. 

 These are the titles to true glory which nothing can extinguish. 

 The spectacle of the heavens will be changed ; but at these 

 distant epochs the glory of the inventor will ever subsist ; the 

 traces of his genius bear the stamp of immortality. 



I have thus presented to you some features of an illustrious 

 life consecrated to the glory of the sciences. May your recol- 

 lection supply the defects of accents so feeble. May the voices 

 of the nation — may that of the world at large, be raised to ce- 

 lebrate the benefactors of nations — the only homage worthy 

 of those who, like Laplace, have been able to extend the do- 

 mains of thought — to attest to man the dignity of his being, 

 by unveiling to his eyes all the majesty of the heavens. 



Art. II. — On Thorite, a New Mineral Species, and on a 

 New Earth, Thorina, which it contains. By J. J. Bee- 



ZELIUS. 



The Rev. Mr Esmark of Brevig in Norway having discovered 

 a curious mineral substance in the vicinity of that place, his 

 father, the celebrated mineralogist, Esmark, transmitted it to me 

 for examination, supposing it to be a variety of tantalite. It 

 occurs in the syenite, which composes the island near Brevig. 

 It is massive, black, brittle, and semi-hard. The vitreous lustre 

 of its fracture resembles that of gadolinite. The surface is some- 

 times covered with a red coating. Its powder is dark brown ; 

 its specific gravity 4.8. Before the blowpipe it gives out water 

 and becomes yellow. 



This mineral contains a new earth, which possesses so many 

 properties resembling those of what I formerly conceived to be 

 a new earth, to which I gave the same name, that I at first was 

 made to believe that the latter had really contained some of this 



