MINERALOGY. 109 



VJS. Earth is thus the body, which is mutable neither 

 in water, air, nor fire. Earth is a mater-, air-, and fire- 

 proof body. This is the brief, rigid, wholly exclusive, 

 and significantly expressive definition, which a so-called 

 empirical science could never, but philosophy alone, 

 bestow. 



529. The Ore is not soluble in water, nor mutable in 

 air ; on the contrary, it is fusible, oxydizable, or reducible 

 in fire. Ore is a water- and air-, but not fire-proof 

 body. 



530. The Inflammable is immutable in water, but 

 mutable in air and fire. TJie Inflammable is a water- 

 proof, but not air- and fire-proof body. 



531. The Salt is soluble in water, and decomposible 

 in fire, but immutable in air. Salt is an air-, but not 

 water- and fire-proof body. The legitimate series of gra- 

 dations comprised in the above four definitions cannot 

 escape the attentive reader, nor moreover that the pro- 

 perties of the earths are all affirmative, Nature has not 

 employed such insignificant means of distinction as our 

 mineralogy has done; has nowhere used an acid in 

 order to distinguish the metals from the earths, nor 

 savour to separate the salts from the earths; but 

 she selects universal reagents which are the elements 

 themselves. So simple is Nature, if we do not violate 

 her by art. 



DIVISION OF THE EARTHS. 



53.2. There is not merely a single silicious mineral, 

 but many such, just as in clay, talc, and calx. How, 

 then, do differences occur in these earths ? When we 

 survey the science of Mineralogy we remark that most 

 minerals are composed of several earths ; with them also 

 metals, coal, sulphur, alkalies and acids are frequently 

 associated. It follows thereupon that the further dis- 

 tinctions are no longer of an internal kind, namely, 

 alterations of substance ; but proceed from combinations 

 and thus indicate stochiometric bodies. The next divi- 

 sion of the orders I call Families. 



Order 1. Siliciom minerals. * 



