Reflections on some Mineralogical Systems., 125 
arts which depend on them. Germany possesses numbers 
of books on the mineralogical art, in which we seek in vain 
for an idea of philosophy. The English also have their 
detached and technical works. The French have had a 
Dolomieu and a Haiiy. 
I have cited these examples to prove that the philosophy 
of a science does not always accompany the arts which de- 
pend onit. Perbaps we might even say, notwithstanding 
their apparent relation, that they are often in an inverse 
proportion to one another, as well among individuals as na- 
tions. We might even extend this observation further, 
and follow it in the moral sciences, and even demonstrate 
generally and @ prior? that it is an imevitable consequence 
of the nature cf things. . 
LOCAL ADVANTAGES TO SCIENCE. 
If in what I have just observed on these three sciences, 
we remark any disproportion between the causes and effects, 
it is because the latter undergo modifications by the organi- 
zation of society, the division of riches, the relations be- 
tween necessitous trade and enlightened industry: in short, 
by all the circumstances which influence the manners and 
characters of people. In England, for instance, affluence, 
more general than elsewhere, enables a greater number of 
persons to live independent and pursue any object at their 
pleasure. The habit of reflecting, and the respect which 
the higher branches of knowledge insures, favour philoso- 
phical speculations, however manufactures may be of a 
more direct necessity to the state and more lucrative to the 
individual, A necessary consequence of this state of things 
is, that with a much greater number of artisans, we should 
not find in England fewer'philosophers than elsewhere, but 
that we shall often meet persons who are eminently distin- 
guished in both respects. In France there is less necessity 
for manufactures and commerce ; but society is more di- 
stinguished for men of learning, and the government gives 
them salaries *; there are fewer artisans but not fewer philo- 
* Were it not foreign to the subject, it would be easy to prove, that the 
mercenary spirit of pensioners or hirelings is incompatible with the spirit 
of true ehithsophiy, and that genius is always most advantageously exhi- 
bired when creating its own resources. ‘The anniversary addresses of the 
present enlightened President of the Royal Society have occasionally pour- 
trayed with the hand of a master, the great superiority of a society sup- 
ported by the voluntary contributions of its members, ever that of a body 
supported by the charity of the state, and acting in servile obedience to the 
wers that be. Fortunately, we have no pensioncd societies; and in our 
ational Museum there is more of Wernerian system than the science of 
mineralogy. ‘TRans. 
sophers, 
