134 CLASSIFICATION^ 



\vhile the determination of the intermediary memhers, being unprd* 

 vided for, except in the general description, #re a perpetual source 

 of doubt and confusion. These subdivisions are, moreover, entirely 

 arbitrary, many of them coming from artists and persons whose 

 employment consists in the working of stones; and ai'e unworthy of 

 the attention of the mineralogist. They will not be found to be re- 

 tained, therefore, in the present work, any farther than the notice of 

 certain varieties which are applied to economical purposes* These 

 will be pointed out with sufficient accuracy, in the second part of 

 the work, merely for the sake of convenience to the economist. 



. 108. Two KINDS OF CLASSIFICATION. 



There are two kinds of classification in mineralogy, the 

 natural and the artificial, or the synthetical and the analyt- 

 ical. The artificial or analytical classification has for its 

 object, simply, the distinction and the naming of unknown 

 minerals ; the synthetical or natural system, is directed to 

 the knowledge of relations among the species with a view 

 to connect them into a system, so that those which resem- 

 ble each other the most in nature, shall be situated the near- 

 est each other in the arrangement.* 



* For the gratification of the more advanced student, the following out- 

 line of the natural method is given, with the hope, that such may be led 

 by it to consultHhe profound and philosophical writings of Mohs, from 

 whence it is drawn, and where they will find this system fully developed. 



The species themselves are the proper objects of classification, or the 

 things to be classified. It is necessary therefore, to regard them as 

 wholes. In taking this view of any one species, all the connexions of 

 certain properties occuring in individuals must be allowed to disappear, 

 and we must view it, not as a compound of single varieties, but as com- 

 plete as possible. 



The principle of classification is the resemblance among natural 

 properties. Several bodies are similar, or resemble each other, which 

 approximate more or less in their properties; and this resemblance is 

 the greater, the higher we find the degree of approximation. 



