INTRODUCTION. XI 



any mineral whatever as I will ; the smallest particle that can 

 be obtained by mechanical instruments, will always be the 

 same mineral ; for each particle, be it ever so small, preserves 

 the same properties as would the whole in their collective 

 state. These qualities consequently are not confined to the 

 aggregate, since they do not cease with it. But if I destroy 

 the composition of a mineral, that is to say, if I reduce it to 

 its constituent parts, then each separate constituent part is 

 no longer the same mineral, because it has not the same pro- 

 perties as when in composition. When, for example, I de- 

 compose the glassy silver ore fglaserz sproede) in separating 

 the silver, the sulphur, and the arsenic -, or cinabar, in with- 

 drawing separately the mercury and the sulphur ; I cannot 

 then say of these constituent parts, that they are still the 

 mineral in the composition of which they formerly existed. 

 Thus there is no doubt that the relations of minerals consist 

 in their composition, since they cease with it. 



" In the second place, the gradation of natural bodies into 

 one another (which is the most infallible sign of the natural 

 order), shows us that the different relations of the bodies of 

 the two former kingdoms consist in their aggregated state, by 

 means of which they pass as it were the one into the other ; 

 as likewise that the relations of bodies of the two latter 

 kingdoms, that is to say, minerals and meteors, are in their 

 composition, because it is only by reason of this composition 

 that they pass the one into the other : as, for example, in the 

 mineral kingdom, the glassy silver ore passes to another kind 

 (the brittle) j this to the red silver ore (Rothgultig) ; and 

 this again to the white silver ore (Weissgultige) ; according 

 as to the first is joined arsenic, to the second raw iron, and 

 to the third copper. In fine, we have a sufficient number of 

 examples of passages of the animal kingdom into the vegeta- 

 ble, and of the mineral kingdom into that of meteors j 

 whereas, with regard to the passage of the animal and ve- 

 getable kingdoms into the mineral, we have no proof: and 

 indeed, as we have before observed, that can never be, be- 

 cause in the first the natural order of relations follows their 



