MEMOIR OF WERNER. 
31 
milar — a fact which becomes more manifest, the 
more attentively we examine their structure. 
But every mineral is capable of being turned to 
some useful purpose ; and, on the greater or less 
abundance of particular kinds in certain localities, 
and the ease or difficulty with which they are ob- 
tained, often depend the prosperity of a people, their 
advancement in civilisation, and all the details of 
their manners. 
In Lombardy, for example, we see only houses 
of brick ; while Liguria, which is contiguous to it, 
is covered with palaces of marble. Its quarries of 
travertin made Rome the most beautiful city of the 
ancient world ; those of coarse limestone and gyp- 
sum have rendered Paris one of the most agreeable 
of modern times. But Michael Angelo and Bra- 
manti could not have built at Paris in the same style 
as at Rome, because the same materials were a- 
wanting ; and this influence of local soil extends to 
things very remote and important. 
Under the shelter of those ridges of limestone 
which intersect Italy ami Greece, varying in height, 
branching in numerous directions, and giving rise to 
abundance of rivulets ; — in those charming valleys, 
rich in all the products of animated nature, philoso- 
phy and the arts first sprung up. It was these that 
gave birth to minds of which the human race have 
most reason to be proud ; while, on the other hand, 
the vast sandy plains of Tartary and Africa have al- 
ways prevented their inhabitants from becoming any 
