Reflectionson some Mineralogical Systems, 127 
stallized in rhomboids, while that sugar is always sugar. 
The chief director of the cabinet of a sovereign .also did 
not like it, because Haiiy pretended to prove all with a piece 
the size of a filbert. A director in chief of mines, a 
supreme and secret counsellor, tired of the ordinary means 
of carrying off the water which inundated the bottom of 
a mine, travelled eight posts of Saxony in two days to con- 
sult me on the means of decomposing this liquid by sul- 
phuric acid or by fire; and a celebrated professor considered 
his idea poetical. Itis thus that every extraordinary idea, 
however absurd'or ridiculous it may be, is qualified in Ger- 
many. 
A particular cause has still contributed to the confusion 
of inineralogy.. ‘The animal kingdom is that of the three 
kingdoms of nature, which, in proportion to its richness, 
furnishes the smallest number of species useful for the ne- 
cessities of life, and the characters which distinguish them 
are marked with precision. It is hence that the knowledge 
of individuals should precede a very little the philosophy of 
the science, that is to say, the knowledge of the species. 
The vegetable kingdom has not been exempt from its, por- 
tion of enigmas, to which ignorance and charlatanism gave 
birth. More. researches were necessary to find the true 
Specific characters than in zodlogy, and the species furnish 
more materials for the arts. The labyrinth of mineralogy 
has been without limits. From him that digged in the earth 
without ever seeing day, to him that had made a study of 
this part of nature, each had his system and created names. 
The resistance which some minerals gave to the instruments 
employed to raise them determined the species to one, the 
other knew them only by the value of their contents.  Uti- 
lity gave a distinguished place to such substances; the want 
of knowledge to offer means made such others be rejected, 
The habit of sceing’ minerals gives a certain facility. in 
knowing them ; the little precision of their characters gave 
birth to opportunities for confounding them :—such were the 
resources in which consisted the philosophy of mineralogy. 
~ In the contracted views of those who exclude from nature 
every thing of which they do not directly feel the necessity, 
and in the confusion which results from the varied use of 
the objects that philosophy should consider, what are the 
resources which it can derive from the arts? In the shop cf 
the joiner philosophy will see but trees, and those deprived 
of life. Shall it consult the sculptor on the products of the 
mineral kingdom? from him it can learn to know buta very 
small part of the objects to which the science extends. Shall 
¥/ , it 
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