46 Review of Cleavelaiid^s Mineralogy, 



we say of the Abbe Hauy, of whom, whether we spealc of his 

 genius, his learning, his acuteness, his discoveries, his candour, 

 and love of truth, or his universally amiable and venerable 

 character, we can never think without sentiments of the high- 

 est respect and admiration ? More than any modern writer 

 he has added to the list of synonymes, often exchanging a very 

 good name, derived perhaps from the locality or discoverer of 

 a mineral, for one professedly significant, but connected with 

 its subject by a chain of thought so slight, that considerable 

 knowledge of Greek etymology, and still more explanation, is 

 necessary to comprehend the connexion ; and thus, after all, 

 it amounts, with respect to most readers, only to the exchange 

 of one arbitrary name for another. What advantage, for in- 

 stance, has grammatite, alluding to a line often obscure, and 

 still oftener wholly invisible, over the good old name tremolite^ 

 which always reminds us of an interesting locality ; how is 

 pyroxene better than augite, amphibole than hornblende, amphi- 

 gene than leuciie, or disthene than sappar. Some of the Abbe 

 Haiiy's names are, however, very happily chosen, especially 

 where new discriminations were to be established, or errors 

 corrected, or even a redundant crop of synonymes to be su- 

 perseded by a better name. Epidote is an instance of the lat- 

 ter, and the new divisions of the old zeolite family into four 

 species, mesotype, stilbiie, analcime, and chabasie, afford a hap- 

 py instance of the former. It were much to be wished, that by 

 the common consent of mineralogists, one nomenclature should 

 be universally adopted : for its uniformity is of much more im- 

 portance than its nature. 



In expressing our approbation of the principles of arrange- 

 ment adopted by Professor Cleaveland, we have of course 

 espoused those of his tabular view, which is perhaps as near- 

 ly as the state of science will admit, erected upon a chemical 

 basis, like that of Brongniart, to which it bears a close resem- 

 blance. Some of the subordinate parts, we could have wished 

 had been arranged in a manner somewhat different. In the 

 genus lime, it appears to us better to describe the species 

 carbonat first; because, being very abundant, and its cha- 

 racters clear, it forms a convenient point of departure and 



