MINERALOGY. 
434 
MINERAL'OGY, f. [from mineral, and Aoy©-.] The 
do&rine of minerals; or that branch of natural hiftory 
■which has for its objedl the defcription and difcrimina- 
tion of inorganized or mineral fubftances, as they are 
found in the earth or in its furface. 
The knowlege of fome mineral bodies may be confider- 
ed as coeval with the earlieft ages of the world. The 
rudeft and molt barbarous nations could not be ignorant 
of fome of the properties of the fubftances which were 
molt familiar to their obfervation; and mankind have 
made little progrefs in civilization, when they are entirely 
unacquainted w'ith the nature of thofe matters from 
which fome of the metals are extracted. 
Precious (tones, it feems not at all improbable, firft at¬ 
tracted the notice of mankind. The richnefs of colour, 
brilliancy, luftre, and durability, of thefe bodies, could 
not fail to excite admiration, and make them be fought 
after as ornaments, even by the lead civilized people, and 
in countries were they are molt abundant. They were 
well known, it would appear from the facred writings, 
among the Jews and Egyptians in the time of Moles. At 
this period, however, both the Jew's and Egyptians had 
advanced far in refinement. 
But this knowledge was too limited to be dignified with 
the name of Mineralogy. It wanted that comprehenfive, 
connected, and fcientific, view, which could entitle it to 
that denomination. Indeed the ftate of mineralogical 
knowledge among the ancients is unavoidably involved 
in much difficulty and obfcurity. The writings of fome 
of the more early naturalifts have perilhed; thofe of others 
have been handed down to us in mutilated arid imperfeCt 
forms; the reftraints on- fcientific communication, pre- 
vioully to the invention of printing, were great and nu¬ 
merous ; the principles of chemiftry, which throw fo 
much light on the convpolition of v.arious mafles of our 
globe, were long unknow-n; and the want of a precife 
nomenclature can never be fupplied. 
Yet the fubjeCl admits of partial explanations and pro¬ 
bable conjectures, and is calculated to roufe the united 
exertions of the claffical fcholar and of the naturalift. We 
find, accordingly, that, in the elucidation of particular 
words and palfages, critics and commentators have la¬ 
boured with various fuceefs; but few have attempted to 
-interpret, the whole vocabulary of ancient mineralogy. 
Memoirs on the Greek and Latin defignations of certain 
. foffil fubftances may be found in the Tranfactions of va¬ 
rious learned focieties. Millin has ably illuftrated the 
lithology of Homer; and the chevalier de Born collected 
materials for his intended Mineralogia Veterum, but 
lived not.to execute his plan. 
Gmelin lias unduly depreciated, and Buffon as unduly 
.over-rated, themineralogical knowledge of the ancients. 
91 The ancients,” lays Buffon, “directed all their fcientific 
views to the objeCts of utility, and indulged much lels 
than we do in idle curiofity. Whatever bore no direCt 
relation to the interefts of fociety, to health, to the fine 
.arts, in Ihort, to fome ufeful purpofe, they treated with 
negleCt, as unworthy of occupying the human mind. 
Thus they regarded a.ftone which could be turned to no 
beneficial account as wholly ufelefs; and, fo far from de- 
fcribing it, they did not even honour it with a name. 
Ariftotle exprelsly fays, there are many Hones deftitute of 
names.” With all due deference to Buffon, we demur 
to the general poiition that views of direCt utility alone 
.guided the inquiries of the learned in former times. 
■Granting, however, that the faCt were eftablilhed beyond 
.difpute, the doCtrine is too narrow for the approbation of 
an enlightened age. Curiofity naturally prompts us to 
examine even thofe objeCts of which the utility is by no 
means apparent; and curiofity was not bellowed on us in 
vain. It not unfrequently conduCf s us to the knowledge 
of new and unfufpeCied relations, and to a rich and plen¬ 
tiful harveft, where the foil promiled only cold and fterility. 
With more propriety might M. de Buffon have noticed 
$Ue aftonilhing powers evinced by the ancients, in draw¬ 
ing large mafles from the bowels of the earth; anu the 
labour which they muft have exerted in the extraction of 
metals and precious Hones ; deprived as they were of the 
mariner’s compafs and gunpowder, and of many mecha¬ 
nical contrivances which now facilitate and multiply the 
operations of human induftry. Without dwelling on the 
marbles and porphyries employed in the ftruCture of fo 
many magnificent edifices which have adorned Greece 
and ancient Rome, let us hear what Pliny fays of thofe 
enormous mineral excavations which were formed in his 
day: “We hew down mountains, and we drag them 
from their bafe, in quell of objeCts which may gratify our 
luxury. We remove the barriers which nature leemed to 
have placed between nations, and we conftruCt veffels ex- 
clufively adapted to the tranl’portation of marble.” With 
poignant raillery, Petronius has remarked that the Ro¬ 
mans, after having exhaufted mountains to procure dif¬ 
ferent kinds of Hones, have for the fame purpofe, peme- 
trated to luch depths, that the (hades may again hope to 
fee the light of day. Numbers appear to have compen- 
fated the want of (kill and ingenuity. The Have, the pri- 
foner of war, the criminal, and even the unfortunate in¬ 
nocent, were condemned to drudge under the infpeCtion 
of rigid talkmafters. Athenaeus relates of the miners in 
Attica, that they once rofe in rebellion, and made them- 
lelves mailers of the promontory of Sunium, from which 
they ilfued into the country in predatory bands. We 
learn from Polybius, that forty thouland workmen were 
employed in the mines near Carthage ; and Pliny informs 
us that the Vercellenfian miners were limited by a fpecial 
law to five thoufand. 
As a -lpecimen of the obfcurity attached of old to the 
fubjeCl of mineralogy, we may juft obferve, that the an¬ 
cient naturalifts confidered rock-cryllal as water in a high 
ftate of congelation; and confequently, as moll abound¬ 
ing in very cold countries. Diodorus Siculus, however, 
afcribes its hardnefs to the powerful influence of the fun's 
rays ; while Pliny, with becoming modefty, avows his ig¬ 
norance of the caule of its hexangular formation. Let 
us therefore turn at once, profitably, to the moderns. 
That all matter, lays Linnseus, was primordially in a 
Hate of fluidity, and that the earth arofe from the bolom of 
the waters, we have the tellimony of Mofes, of Thales, and 
of Seneca. And it is manifelt, that the lea, enveloping 
the chaotic nucleus, produced by flow and gradual means 
the continent, which, by continually exhaling its dews 
into clouds, is regularly moiftened by ethereal, reClified, 
deciduous, (howers. Genuine remains of the general de¬ 
luge, as far ns I have invelligated, I have not found j 
much lefs the adamitic earth; but I have every-wliere 
feen earths formed by the dereliction or depolition of 
waters, and in thefe the remains of a long and gradual 
lapfe of ages. 
The Water of the ocean, frigid, paffive, concipient, 
every where fecundated by a dry, calelcent, aCtive, gene¬ 
rating, air, is obferved teeming with a double offspring ; 
a J'aline male, foluble, acrid, clear, cryltalline; a terrene fe¬ 
male, fixed vifcid, opake, attraClorial. This water, more¬ 
over, affords nourilhment to two other of its offspring. 
Animals and Vegetables, continued in their kind by a 
regular catenation of feeds; and thefe both are reduced 
into earth by a perennial circle of aCtion. 
Salts are fapid, many-fided, diaphanous, foluble into 
infinite minute particles, always retaining their original 
form, and concreting again and again into larger mafles of 
like uniform lhape. Thefe, by cryllallization in and from 
various earths, generate various llones. Nitre, which is 
aerial, and which by obduClion augments fand. Muriu, 
which is marine, and which by corrolion attraCls clay. 
Natrum, which is animal, and which by refudation coagu¬ 
lates calx. Alum, which is vegetable, and which by rami¬ 
fication cements foil. Thefe are the fathers of flows. 
Earths are reducible to dull, eafily become day, dif- 
foluble, fixed, primitive ; are generated by cryftallization 
or formed by precipitation, produced by acefcence or re¬ 
produced 
