[ 73'] 



Page vi. he tells us " it is the feries of fails that eonftitute* 

 " fcience." I fhould rather fay it was a knowledge of the re-^ 

 lation that fubfifts betv/een the fadts that occur ; but neither the 

 fads themfelves can often be difcovered without much fuhtl^ 

 reafoning, nor can they be marfhalled in a lun^inous feries with- 

 out difcovering the reciprocal relations of the component ingre- 

 dients of compound fubflances to each other, a difcovery which 

 often requires an elaborate train of reafoning. 



Lastly, both he and Morveau tell us that the memory of 

 learners is fingalarly relieved by compound denominations ex- 

 preffing the component ingredients of each compound. In reply 

 to which, I fay, that the fcience is not to be charged with a 

 cumberfome train of words merely to gratify the indolence of 

 beginners 3 are we then on every occafion to fubftitute the defi- 

 nition of words for the words themfelves ? are we, in imitation 

 of the Germans, to fay a handjboe inftead of a glove} Helvetius 

 has long fince remarked, that every man of common underftanding 

 pofTeffes fufEcient power of memory to retain the fignification of 

 moft words in his own, and often of thofe of feveral other 

 languages ; chymiftry and mineralogy together fcarcely prefent two 

 hundred appertaining to them alone; neither the fciences of 

 aftronomy, law or medicine afford fewer. 



The fafhionable rage of coining new words from the Greek, 



voithwt any neceffity, has been particularly baneful to mineralogy, 



Vol. VIII. K infomuch 



