Ill 



Werner s Doctrines 109 



been guided by the distribution of minerals, how campaigns, 

 battles, and military strategy as a whole, had been dependent 

 on the same cause. The artist, the politician, the historian, 

 the physician, the warrior were all taught that a knowledge 

 of mineralogy would help them to success in their several 

 pursuits. It seemed as if the most efficient training for the 

 affairs of life were obtainable only at the Mining School of 

 Freiberg. 



By such continual excursions into domains that might 

 have been thought remote enough from the dry study 

 of minerals, and by the clear and confident method, playful 

 vivacity and persuasive eloquence with which they were 

 conducted, Werner roused his hearers to a high pitch of 

 enthusiasm. No teacher of geological science either before 

 or since has approached Werner in the extent of his personal 

 influence or in the breadth of his contemporary fame. 



Let us now inquire what were the leading character- 

 istics of his doctrines, and what permanent influence they 

 exerted upon the progress of the science of his time. His 

 brilliance and discursiveness might attract and retain large 

 audiences, but his lectures must have possessed more solid 

 and enduring qualities, which inspired his disciples to devote 

 their lives to the studies into which he introduced them, 

 and filled them with the ardour of devoted proselytes. 



The first feature to which we may direct our attention, 

 distinguishable in every part of his life and work, was his 

 overmastering sense of orderliness and method. This 

 habit of mind became in him a true passion. He is said 

 to have bought books rather to arrange them systemati- 

 cally than to read them. He observed the details of 

 social etiquette as punctiliously as the characters of 



