106 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



the external characters of minerals. 1 We can imagine the 

 astonishment and delight of the lovers of mineralogy when 

 they first got hold of this treatise, and found there, instead 

 of the miscellaneous, isolated, and heterogeneous observa- 

 tions to which they were accustomed, an admirably orderly 

 method and a clear marshalling and co-ordination of facts, 

 such as had never before been seen in mineralogical 

 literature. 



On leaving the University of Leipzig, Werner went 

 back to his home by the Queiss. It seemed as though the 

 authorities at Freiberg, who at one time were so anxious 

 to secure his services, had now forgotten his existence. 

 He had heard nothing more of the proposal to engage him, 

 and began to arrange his plans for the future. But the 

 officials, though slow in their movements, had not lost sight 

 of him. They had made note of his progress at Leipzig, 

 and especially of his admirable little book, and at last in 

 February 1775, to his own astonishment, Werner received 

 a call from them to become Inspector and Teacher of 

 Mining and Mineralogy in the Freiberg Mining Academy 

 at a yearly stipend of 300 thalers. He thus attained before 

 he was twenty-six years of age the position in which he 

 spent the rest of his life and achieved his great fame. 

 For some forty years he continued in the same appoint- 

 ment. By his genius he raised the Mining School from 

 a mere local seminary, founded for the training of a few 

 Saxon miners, to the importance of a great academy or 

 university, to which, as in mediaeval times, his renown as a 



1 "Von den aiisserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien, abgefasst von 

 Abraham Gottlob Werner, Der Bergwerks-Wissenschaften und Rechte 

 Beflissenen," Leipzig, 1774. 



