4 
nated. These divisions are the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
characterized by organic structure, and the wondrous pheno- 
mena of life ; and the inorganic or mineral kingdom, comprising 
that far greater proportion of the materials of the planet in 
which no traces of organic structure are observable. This last 
assemblage of objects has been generally understood to form 
the province of mineralogy, which thus in its most extended 
sense would include all the aeriform and gaseous bodies oc- 
curring in nature, and could hardly venture to exclude the 
multifarious substances produced under similar chemical laws by 
the agency of nian. 
But since, amid the daily increasing accumulation of new and 
unexpected combinations, the domain of the inorganic kingdom 
appears unlimited, and many of its phenomena must be investi- 
gated by special departments of science, it becomes necessary to 
draw a boundary line around that portion of it which is to be 
embraced in modern mineralogy; and where we can find no 
logical distinction between the actual products of similar bodies 
and similar laws, as seen in nature or in art, we must, for the 
sake of convenience and utility, rest our criterion of separation 
upon the different conditions of their origin. 
Under this point of view mineralogy has for its object the 
consideration of the natural inorganic materials of our globe, 
fluid and solid ; the physical phenomena which they present, 
their chemical constitution, their modes of occurrence, the 
methods by which they are distinguishable from each other, 
their classification, and the uses to which they may be made 
subservient. 
Now it is evident that as the characters of minerals are 
dependent partly on their form, partly on their chemical and 
partly on their physical properties, mineralogy must be based 
upon geometry, chemistry, and natural philosophy; and the 
history of the science affords the best proof that no branch of 
knowledge can rise towards perfection till the conterminous 
sciences have, after due cultivation, been brought forward to 
aid in its development. The student should therefore previously 
acquire a certain acquaintance with these auxiliaries ; and it is 
for this reason that the lectures on chemistry and physics have 
