126 Reflections on some Mineralogical Systems. 
3 : fo} y 
sophers. In Germany the sciences are exiled to the uni+ 
versities, and the most flourishing manufacture is that of 
books: they have many Jearned, many “professors, many 
pedants, and a multitude of book-makers. 3 
The state of mineralogy may now be divined according 
to the circumstances which have prevailed at its establish- 
ment. In those parts where the abundance of minerals 
and the necessity of art have given it birth, we must ex- 
pect to see miners more expert than elsewhere. They will 
have a better ¢act at distinguishing minerals which they 
detach at every blow of the hammer, and even others which 
they do not meetwith every day. They will soon begin to 
amass specimens, will form collections, and organize the 
confusion under the name of science. If at length there 
should arise a man gifted with penetration and sagacity, and 
who felt the disadvantages of this disorder, he could de 
much to facilitate the study and the knowledge of minerals; 
but having in view the interest of miners, his system would 
savour of it, and leave much after him to be done for phi- 
losophy. If he adopted easy means, which neither required 
great profundity of thought nor a chain of reasoning to be 
comprehended, we should see multitudes of amateurs di- 
sperse themselves over the mountains or plunge into cavities | 
searching for minerals. But if the trade of writer is a 
resource, if the state of author is a title in society, what 
part of our knowledge offers so many facilities as minera- 
logy? Learned men will spring up from its touch like men 
from the hand of .Deucalion ; and stones will be thrown in 
handfuls before, behind, to the right and to the left: they 
will transpose, arrange, derange, reason or not reason, write 
and speak without ceasing. Among the amateurs of every 
kind that Heaven sends, may it above all preserve to us the 
- amateurs of pebbles ! 
If it be not the necessity of an art which directs the at- 
tention to mineralogy, it will assume another form. It 
_will admit principles with which the miner may dispense, 
and will take care not to become popular. I have heard a 
person very well versed in the diagnosis of minerals, and 
who passes for being very able at distinguishing the colour, 
brilliancy, cold and heat of specimens, say, that without 
being a Newton one could not comprehend the work of M. 
Haiiy. A very well informed man, the possessor of one of 
the finest cabinets in Germany, author of a work printed 
on vellum paper and bound-n morocco, maintained to me 
that the system of Gaiiy was. worth nothing, because his 
cook had found sugar crystallized in cubes and sugar ery- 
stallized 
