MEMOIR OF VVERN&K. 21 



preserved a few of these pieces, and, when he shew- 

 ed his collection, winch soon became one of the rich- 

 est in Europe, lie seldom failed to draw attention to 

 these small beginnings of it, as if he wished to shew 

 a kind of gratitude for the first sparks which proved 

 the source of such abundant light. 



It was intended that he should engage in the bu- 

 siness of mining, and as the laws of Saxony require 

 that those who embrace this profession should be re- 

 gularly licensed, he first attended the courses of me- 

 tallurgy in the school of Freyberg, and subsequently 

 those of jurisprudence in the University of Leipsic. 



Two prevailing tastes, or, it may be rather said, 

 two passions, attended him through life — the love of 

 minerals, and the love of method. He delighted in 

 dividing and classifying things, like ideas. What- 

 ever admitted of being arranged, gave him pleasure ; 

 and when lie began to purchase books, he seemed to 

 do so rather for the purpose of arranging them me- 

 thodically, than in order to read them. Both these 

 propensities were conspicuous in his first work, the 

 Treatise on the External Characters of Minerals, a 

 pamphlet of a few sheets, which he published at 

 Leipsic when he was twenty-four years of age. It 

 comprises an analysis and minute subdivision of all 

 the variations in the apparent properties of minerals. 

 Each of these properties is designated by an appro- 

 priate term, designed conjointly to form a definite 

 language, by means of which all mineralogists may 

 be readily understood. 



This was rendering to mineralogy a service simi- 



