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In the first i>lace I must say that though Minerahigy is undoubt- 

 •etUy one of the natural sciences ; it would be taking a false view of it 

 to compare it, so far as system and classificatioa are concerned, to the 

 ■other branches of natural history. It must be adcnitted that mineral 

 ?pecits ax'e produced in nature each according to its own character and 

 properties and are as i learly distinguished from one another, even in 

 ■external forms and structure, as the most absolutely defined species in 

 any of the higher kingdoms of Botany and Zoology. But if the distinc- 

 tion is as complete, ihe principle of tint distinction is not the same 

 as in plants and animals. The tree which rearj its lofty head ia our 

 forests, the mollusk that lives out its unknown existence in the " dark 

 unfathomed caves of ocean," the fish that seeks its prey in the high- 

 ways of the deep, the bruta mammal that would seem almost to have 

 reached tlie apex of created perfection, hail not God given to nature a 

 foreign king, by breathing a spiritual soul into the material body of 

 man — all these, even man himself, are formed of matter, suhject to the 

 laws discovered by Physics and Chemistry. But in all these another pi'ir.- 

 •ciple asserts itself : Lite, that mysterious power wjiose mighty influence 

 is so clearly visible in the external form and internal structure of 

 plants and minerals that it itubt als3 necessarily lule the whole of these 

 sciences that have the higher created beings for their object. Biology, 

 Physiology, Anatomy regulate the whole system of the Botanical and 

 Zoological sciences, and in spite of all the progress of moJern chemistry, 

 I cannot believe that it will ever be found necessary to label any 

 vegetable or animal species with its chemical formula or the percentage 

 t)f its component elements. In Minei-alogy tie case is quite difl'erent. 

 The mineral, free from the influence of life, is entirely sui'ject to those 

 chemical 1-aws which hold exclusive sway over all inanimate matter. 

 Jn fact, between the mineral j)ro^erly so called produced by nature, 

 and the artiKcial substance proJuced by the chemist in his laboratory, 

 there is no specific difference. The same laws have preside! over the 

 formation of each with this diff"erence only that in the one case the neces- 

 sary conditions were fortuitously combined by natural agencies, whilst 

 in the othtr they were intentionally set by the intelligent scientist. 

 All substances, therefore, which have a definite composition, whether 

 occurring in. tho rocks or ai'titicially prepared, be) >ng to the sune 



