16 Biographical Memoir of 
prelections embraced. But in his private conversations, he 
traced their application a great deal further. The history of 
nations, and that of their languages, was connected, in his 
apprehension, with that of minerals and geological forma- 
tions, and he never considered himself as departing from his 
principal object, when he gave himself up occasionally to 
those other inquiries. He traced the various tribes in their 
migrations, according to the declivities and directions of 
countries, and he thus connected their progress and their 
stations with the structure of the globe. He connected the 
different languages with families; he traced each family to a 
common source, originating always in the most elevated point 
of a mountain chain; from that point he considered every 
dialect as descending, dividing itself according to the direc- 
tions of the valleys, becoming soft or hard according as it 
became stationary, in a level or in a mountainous district, 
separating itself in process of time from the neighbouring 
dialects, and becoming always so much the more distinct, as 
the natural obstacles to communication became more insur- 
mountable. 
He endeavoured even to trace the laws of military art by 
those of geology ; and if he had been to be believed, all gene- 
rals should have begun by studying some time at Freyberg. 
Strangers who happened to be at Freyberg, and who expected 
only to converse with a mineralogist, were astonished at his 
continual discussions respecting tactics, politics, and medicine. 
Many individuals, who afterwards became great mineralo- 
gists, had only wished to hear him, that they might give a 
summary idea of the science of minerals ; but having once 
listened to him, that science became the profession of their 
lives. 
It is to this irresistible influence, that the scientific world 
has been indebted for these discoveries and observations which 
have rendered the names of Jameson, Humboldt, Buch, and, 
in fact, of many other geologists, renowned through Europe. 
Few teachers have enjoyed this pure and unreserved gra- 
titude to the same degree; but perhaps no one ever better 
deserved it by his paternal feelings. He grudged nothing to 
the good of his scholars,—his time, his exertions, was at their 
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