382 CHARACTERISTIC. . 248. 



ceptible in many of the indications of forms, which in many 

 species are either not determined at all, or at least not to a 

 sufficient degree of accuracy. From such imperfect infor- 

 mation, the greater part of the difficulties derive, which we 

 have to encounter in the construction and application of 

 the Characteristic. This has no doubt been one of the 

 reasons which has deterred naturalists from following that 

 path in Mineralogy which has been found the right one in 

 Botany and Zoology, and they have considered according- 

 ly as impracticable, every attempt towards the construction 

 of a Characteristic. It is too soon as yet to expect it to 

 be perfect ; yet it is not too soon to make the first step, 

 and the science itself requires that it should be done, in 

 order to obtain in its regular scientific form the third, 

 and not least important part of Natural History, that of 

 the Mineral Kingdom. The imperfections of the Cha- 

 racteristic appear more strikingly in the first class than 

 in the second, or even in the third; but in that class 

 we know so very little of the natural-historical properties 

 of the bodies which it contains, that it has been introdu- 

 ced, almost entirely for the sake of exhibiting with some de- 

 gree of completeness, what the Characteristic should con- 

 tain. Thus also, the systematic nomenclature, which is 

 always in proportion to our knowledge of the objects them- 

 selves, is here more imperfect than in any other part of the 

 system. It is to be expected, however, from the progress 

 already made, that these difficulties will entirely disappear ; 

 and this will take place the sooner, the more we convince 

 ourselves that in order to remove those which are still re- 

 maining, we are not compelled to recur to foreign assist- 

 ance, a process by which the purity of the principles 

 of Natural History would be entirely sacrificed ; and yet 

 this purity has been the only source from which flows 

 even that little, which has as yet been effected. 



