be properly spared by the agricultural interest, whether the 
materials to be used can be obtained in sufficient quantity, 
and whether with all the advantage that our knowledge of 
European inventions affords, such manufactories will prove 
more advantageous to the nation at large, than the importa¬ 
tion of similar articles from foreign countries. At present 
they are principally required for our domestic wants. The 
most important to us are those which are subservient to ag¬ 
riculture, and without which it cannot be carried on. There 
are others which as an independent nation we ought to dis¬ 
dain procuring from abroad. Indeed a large proportion of the 
raw materials used in those manufactories of which we are 
in most need, are derived from the mineral kingdom, and if 
they are to be found in this country of sufficient excellence, 
the necessity of importation will be done away. In this 
point of view, the mineralogical resources of the United States 
become a subject of great interest, and are highly deserving 
the attention of every friend of science and the arts. A 
brief sketch of their value, together with their application 
and use in manufactures and the arts, cannot fail of receiving 
the attention of this society. 
It is only within a few years that mineralogy has received 
the notice that it deserves. It was not indeed until this sci¬ 
ence became united with geology that it could boast of very 
great names among its votaries.f The magic of theoretic 
investigation drew many to its standard, who before attended 
to more pleasing branches of natural history. Werner and 
Hutton promulgated different systems of the formation of 
the earth, both probably too much influenced by the appear¬ 
ances that nature presents in their respective countries. 
The adherents of each have been numerous and active, and 
their exertions unwearied to establish the correctness of 
the different theories. In consequence of the dependence 
of geology on mineralogy, the latter has of course rapidly 
f The various systems of the formation of the earth advanced 
before this period, such as Whiston’s, Buffon’s, 8cc. were wholly 
the result of hypotheses, and are totally independent of any sup¬ 
port from mineralogy. 
