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SYSTEMATIC MINERALOGY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 ATTEMPTS AT THE CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS. 



Sect. 1. Proper object of Classification. 



THE fixity of the crystalline and other physical 

 properties of minerals is turned to account by 

 being made the means of classifying such objects. 

 To use the language of Aristotle 1 , Classification is 

 the architectonic science, to which Crystallography 

 and the Doctrine of External Characters are subor- 

 dinate and ministerial, as the art of the bricklayer 

 and carpenter are to that of the architect. But clas- 

 sification itself is useful only as subservient to an 

 ulterior science, which shall furnish us with know- 

 ledge concerning things so classified. To classify is 

 to divide and to name; and the value of the divisions 

 which we thus make, and of the names which we 

 give them, is this; that they render exact know- 

 ledge and general propositions possible. Now the 

 knowledge which we principally seek concerning 

 minerals is a knowledge of their chemical composi- 

 tion ; the general propositions to which we hope to 

 be led are such as assert relations between their 



1 Elh. Nicom. i. 2. 



