AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 31 



netism Specific Gravity in all its possible varia- 

 tions Hardness of every degree the State of Ag- 

 gregation the Surface, when broken, or scratched, 

 or reduced to powder the Taste and Odor ; and if 

 allowed to step beyond the pure Natural History 

 properties, we might add the numberless changes 

 produced by Chemical Beagents. To enumerate the 

 gradations of these various characteristics would 

 burden the memory to little profit It is seen at a 

 glance that they tax every sense. Determinations 

 depend upon shades of difference so slight, that no 

 language can describe them ; but they are read in 

 the mineral, by that keenness of the senses, which 

 they always acquire when rightly exercised. Thus 

 then, in the mineral kingdom alone, we have a Ian- 



Jj 



guage that is never doubtful in its meaning, to the 

 experienced, but a language to be learned and read 

 only by the constant use of every sense, and the 

 keenest activity of the reasoning powers. What 

 subject, then, among all the studies of a liberal 

 education, gives better conditions of mental growth 

 and activity than this lowest department of nature ? 

 But we must pass to the Kingdom of Life. We 



