82 MEMOIR OF WERNER. 



thing else than fierce and wandering shepherds. In 

 countries where the laws and even the language are 

 alike, an experienced traveller can conjecture, from 

 the habits of the people, and the appearance of their 

 dwellings and clothing, what is the composition of 

 the soil, in the same manner as a philosophical mi- 

 neralogist can infer, from the same source, what are 

 likely to be their manners, as well as their degrees 

 of comfort and instruction. Our granitic districts 

 produce very different effects on all the habits of the 

 people from those that are calcareous. The natives 

 of Limousin, or of Lower Bretagne, are neither 

 lodged nor fed like those of Champagne or of Nor- 

 mandy ; and it may even be said that they do not 

 think alike. Even the results of the conscription 

 nave been different, and the difference is conform- 

 able to a uniform law in the different districts. 



Geographical mineralogy, then, assumes a high 

 importance, when we connect it in this manner with 

 what Werner called Economical Mineralogy, or the 

 history of minerals as applied to the wants of man. 



The comprehensive mind of this great Professor 

 seized with equal facility all these relations, and his 

 auditors listened, with an ever new delight, to the 

 exposition of such of them as the plan of his public 

 prelections permitted him to embrace. But, in his 

 private conversations, he followed up their application 

 to a much greater length. The history of man and 

 languages was connected, according to his views, 

 with that of minerals ; and he never conceived that 



