82 
MEMOIR OF WERNER. 
tiling else than fierce and wandering shepherds. In 
countries where the laws and even the language are 
alike, an experienced traveller can conjecture, from 
the habits of the people, and the appearance of their 
dwellings and clothing, what is the composition of 
the soil, in the same manner as a philosophical mi- 
neralogist can infer, from the same source, what are 
likely to be their manners, as well as their degrees 
of comfort and instruction. Our granitic districts 
produce very different effects on all the habits of the 
people from those that are calcareous. The natives 
of Limousin, or of Lower Bretagne, are neither 
lodged nor fed like those of Champagne or of Nor- 
mandy ; and it may even he said that they do not 
think alike. Even the results of the conscription 
have been different, and the difference is conform- 
able to a uniform law in the different districts. 
Geographical mineralogy, then, assumes a high 
importance, when we connect it in this manner with 
what Werner called Economical Mineralogy', or the 
history of minerals as applied to the wants of man. 
The comprehensive mind of this great Professor 
seized with equal facility all these relations, arid his 
auditors listened, with an ever new delight, to the 
exposition of such of them as the plan of his public 
prelections permitted him to embrace. But, in his 
private conversations, he followed up their application 
to a much greater length. The history of man and 
languages was connected, according to his views, 
with that of minerals ; and he never conceived that 
