c 
which it is his daily task to seek in the recesses of the earth, as 
well ’as with those which exert a favourable or a pernicious 
influence either on the abundance or quality of the objects of his 
search. No less should he be prepared to recognise those 
which, although unusual in the spot where he has commenced 
his career, may be thrown in his way either in another part of 
the same vein, or in neighbouring veins of the same district, or 
even in other lands, to which, by the varying demands for 
mining skill, he may so probably at some time be transplanted. 
Supposing even that our miner had perfected himself in a 
science requiring far more close application to books and in-door 
study ; supposing that he were an expert chemist, I venture to 
assert, that although in many cases highly serviceable to him, 
this rare acquisition would not make amends for an ignorance of 
mineralogy. Were he, each time that he required to know the 
nature of a substance, obliged to enter upon its chemical analysis, 
his days and years would be passed in endless labours often 
repeated and sometimes fruitless. If we concede that after twice 
or thrice analysing the same ore, for example, he were to recog- 
nise it the fourth time by some less laborious test, we allow, in 
other words, that he has acquired a mineralogical knowledge of 
that single substance : and thus we arrive at the conclusion, 
that the methods of mineralogy are those which a man must 
employ, if, in relation to the natural inorganic bodies, he desire 
to reap the advantages offered him by previous investigations. 
There exists, it is true, in practice a source of difficulty which 
has probably gone far to prevent the spread of our science. 
Whilst many of the more abundant and valuable productions of 
the mineral kingdom are met with in such a state of impurity 
from mechanical aggregation and admixtures, that the particular 
minerals of which they are composed are not separable by 
physical means, others occur only in an amorphous or irregularly 
shaped condition. Now scientific mineralogy bases its descrip- 
tions on the most perfect individuals, or crystals, of each species, 
bodies which are comparatively rare ; and treats with but little 
respect those which are never crystallised, and of which the 
distinguishing characters are less definite. It stands to reason 
that in an Institution of a practical tendency the strictness of 
