. 192. OF COMPOUND MINERALS. 



second they would be obvious at first sight. It would be 

 an error of this kind, if a person should consider a corn- 

 field or a bank of trees for an individual, and establish ac- 

 cordingly these corn-fields and banks of trees into particu- 

 lar species. A corn-field or a bank of trees is exactly the 

 same as Red Hematite (the fibrous Red Iron-ore, a com- 

 pound variety of rhombohedral Iron-ore), if compared with 

 real individuals of their respective species. 



From the preceding observations we may infer, that 

 from the composition of minerals, the Natural History of 

 the Mineral Kingdom cannot derive any characteristic pro 

 perties for the determination of the species. This would 

 be an error sufficiently powerful to shake it to the very 

 foundations, and to degrade it from the rank it assumes in 

 the sciences as a part of Natural History. 



