NATURAL HISTORY. 31 



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The landholder ought to know his subterranean 

 wealth, that he may turn his property to the best 

 account. The scientific traveller would be de- 

 prived of the most useful sources of his inquiry, 

 were he to be ignorant of the various substances 

 which his intercourse with foreign countries might 

 present to his observation ; and the well informed 

 person would not be considered accomplished, 

 if unacquainted with the productions of nature, 

 the laws by which they are regulated, and the 

 useful purposes to which they are so uniformly 

 applied. 



Iron, gold, silver, copper, lead, and all the 

 metals, the various precious stones, the whole of 

 the earths used in architecture, and of the saline 

 substances as applied to the arts and medicine, 

 are each subservient to the laws of mineralogy; 

 and those laws require to be known to render 

 them useful to mankind. Hence, without an 

 acquaintance with this branch of science, of the 

 improvements of which it is capable, and of the 

 uses to which it may be applied, our insight into 

 the bowels of the earth would be of little avail ; 

 we should be deprived of one of the principal 

 means of employment for our numerous popula- 

 tion, our attention would be confined principally 

 to the mere gratification of our senses, and the 

 mind would lose one of its most useful excitements. 



In a few words, mineralogy and its various 

 applications, form the basis of every thing that is 



