84 GRANITE. 



to rocks later than the secondary strata, and to rocks 

 beneath the primary. Jf, lastly, we adopt the distinc- 

 tion founded on geological position alone, the term 

 granite will always mean the lowest rock in nature? 

 we shall continue to understand Geologists in what is 

 most essential, namely, its geological position ; and 

 our own descriptions will be subject to no misappre- 

 hensions in this essential point, while the specification 

 of its mineral characters will remove all chance of 

 error. I have therefore chosen this plan. Mineralo- 

 gists may still arrange their specimens according to 

 their own rules ; but Geologists must learn to under- 

 stand each other, on those points which constitute 

 their pursuit. 



I may here extend this remark, since the recent in- 

 crease of a serious abuse seems to demand it. If a 

 steady rnineralogical composition was attached to 

 certain geological characters in rocks, mineralogical 

 terms would, not only be admissible, but desirable. 

 But as this is not the fact, the one cannot be a substi- 

 tute for the other, while it becomes a source of inex- 

 tricable confusion, cheating us with words. Geologi- 

 cal descriptions, formed on such a nomenclature, are 

 the work of those who know nature only in their ca- 

 binets, and who should confine themselves to the hi- 

 stories of their specimens. It is their least offensive 

 quality to be useless ; they are too often the sources 

 of pernicious misrepresentations, or the fallacious and 

 imaginary evidences of false theories, as of false de- 

 scriptions. It would be invidious to point out the 

 mass of writings thus rendered worthless or mischiev- 

 ous; or to name that nation to which we are chiefly 

 indebted for a barbarous neology, which has incalcu- 

 lably augmented these evils. 



Whatever facilities this definition may appear to 



