Werner's Advice to Students of Geology. 81 



of formation. A person ignorant of this kind of knowledge 

 being always obliged to have recourse to other naturalists, 

 would be interrupted at every step in the study of secondary, 

 tertiary and alluvial deposites. 



Besides the various acquirements which we have already enu- 

 merated, the geologist ought to possess a mind capable of com- 

 prehending not only those extensive relations that exist in the 

 mineral kingdom, but also its minuter details. Placed in some 

 measure between the astronomer, who carries his observations 

 into the immensity of space, and rises to the infinitely great, 

 and the scrupulous naturalist, who, armed with a microscope, 

 endeavoui's to discover the secrets of nature in the organs of a 

 mite, or the laminae of a small crystal ; with the grand and ex- 

 tensive views of the one, he must combine the sagacity and ac- 

 curacy of the other. 



Furnished with the necessary knowledge, and endowed with 

 the requisite qualities, he who is desirous of prosecuting the 

 study of geology, ought to take Nature as his principal conduc- 

 tor. It is only by examining minerals in their native bed that 

 he can be led to rational ideas respecting their formation ; it 

 is only by seeing the beds and veins with his own eyes that he 

 can acquire an accurate knowledge of their form, structure, and 

 mutual arrangement ; it is only after he has seen and observed 

 much for himself, that he will be able to appreciate the obser- 

 vations of others, submit them to just criticism, and draw infe- 

 rences from them. It is to him especially that the first lesson 

 applies, which Wallerius gave to his pupils in mineralogy, when 

 he recommended to them to go, on foot, and hammer in hand, 

 to study and interrogate Nature in her own workshops. " Ite 

 filii,"says he, "emite calceos; montes accedite; valles, solitudines, 

 littora maris, terrae profundos, sinus inquirite ; mineralium or- 

 dines, proprietates, nascendi modus notate: tandem carbones 

 emite, fornaces construite, et sine taedio coquite ; ita enim ad 

 corporum proprietatumque cognitionem pervenietis ; alias non*." 

 It is not so much the number as the accuracy of the observa- 

 tions that is of importance ; and here unfortunately observers 

 have too often to struggle against the inclination natural to all 



• Systema Mineralogicum, Praefatio. 

 APRIL JUNE 1829. F 



