34 
MEMOIR OF WERNER* 
sions on tactics, politics, and medicine. They were 
sometimes tempted to regard them as allied to the 
reveries of a maniac. Indeed, we may admit that 
there must have been something of exaggeration in 
generalizing to such an extent the relations of a 
single object; but it ought also to be kept in mind 
to what a degree those conceptions, of so varied and 
exciting a nature, presented in an attractive and of- 
ten eloquent form, must have warmed the imagina- 
tions of youth. At that age, when exceptions are 
so much disliked, and difficulties so easily surmount- 
ed, the disciples of Weiner hurried with enthusiasm 
upon a field of inquiry which he described to them 
as so vast and fruitful. A mineralogy purely mine- 
ralogical would perhaps have disgusted many of 
them ; but they devoted themselves with ardour to 
a mineralogy which seemed to present them with the 
key of nature ; and even although, on a final analysis, 
there might only remain to them the foundation of the 
science, would they not still have reason to rejoice 
at the pleasing illusions which had been the means 
of leading them thither ? 
Some individuals who have since risen to the first 
rank among the mineralogists of Germany, had wish- 
ed to hear him, only for the purpose of obtaining a 
summary knowledge of mineralogy; but having once 
listened to him, that science became the profession 
of their lives. 
It is to this irresistible influence that the scienti- 
fic world has been indebted for those laborious au« 
