lysis of stones and earths by means of fire, would have been of great use, had they possessed in that day a tolerable nomenclature, so that the substances could always be known by the appellations employed; but unfortunately, we cannot at this day ascertain with precision the objects of their experiments, from the names employed to designate them. Wallerius, Cronsted, Peithner, sir John Hill, all contributed their share to the improvement of mineralogy; so in England did Kirwan, Magellan, and Dr. Babington; but their labours were of little account compared with what was then doing on the continent of Europe,-particularly in Germany,from 1780 to 1800. During this important period, professor Werner of Freiburgh, published his Characters of Minerals: his Translation of Cronstedt's Mineralogy, which Magellan does not seem to have used: a descriptive Catalogue of Otraines' Minerals: and several dissertations in the Miner's Journal.

By collecting together and describing with scrupulous accuracy, all the known characters of mineral substances, that were independent of chemical analysis, he has furnished a set of physiognomonic marks, that have given something like certainty to the science, and enabled us to use a language intelligible to every mineralogist who has studied his system; and to speak and read of mineral substances with some chance of being mutually understood, without mistake of the substance named. It is true, that some of Werner's appellations were objectionable from vulgar and discordant analogies, but the attempts to amend his nomenclature, have had a most mischievous effect on the science itself, and have so accumulated unmeaning names, and useless synonimes, as to furnish sufficient grounds for reasonable and constant complaint. Most certainly, the improvements attempted in this respect, have been productive of more confusion than elucidation.

Three distinct systems have been proposed, for the examination and classification of mineral substances:

The system of external characters, which is Werner's.

The system of primitive chrystallization, which is the basis of the French school of mineralogy, and of which, the abbé Hauy may be considered as the principal supporter.

The system of chemical characters, followed chiefly by the English school of mineralogists, Kirwan, Babington, Kidd, Clark, &c.

At present, the wants of the science, seem to compel an eclectic school, which in the description and classification of mineral substances, shall comprise, their external characters-their phosphorescent, magnetic, and electric characters-their specific gravity-their chemical composition; including crystallization, as indeed Werner did, among the external characters.

Bergman and Gahn of Sweden, and Romè de Lisle of France, were the first who noticed, not merely that certain minerals affected and assumed forms of crystallization, peculiar to themselves, but that by pursuing the process used by lapidaries, and by mechanically dividing a mineral at the obvious natural places of fracture, so long as these places are distinguishable, we come at last to the form of a crystal, which no longer presents any natural lines of division; and which therefore, may be considered as the nucleus of crystallization; or as the technical term now is, the primitive crystal. In most cases, this requires the skill and experience of a lapidary; in some, as in the carbonats of lime, the process is comparatively easy. The abbé Hauy pursued this idea with infinite ingenuity, skill, and perseverance; and showed that in most cases of apparent dissimilarity of crystallization, and of variance from the form of the primitive crystal, the variations could be shown to arise, and gradually take place, according to regular and certain laws of accretion and decrement. He has shown also, by means of the goniometer, an instrument employed to measure the angles of crystals, that in substances of the same kind-similar in external characters and in chemically constituent parts, the angles of the primitive crystals are so uniform in extent when measured, that they are of themselves sufficient to determine the nature of the mineral whose crystal is subjected to this mechanical analysis of division and measurement. Ingenious as this system is, there are, as it appears to me, insuperable objections to its general use. It requires a degree of mechanical skill, that it may be worth the while of a lapidary to acquire, but not of a man who has other pursuits to occupy his attention, beside a knowledge of crystals;—it requires a portion of mathematical science and skilful application of that science, far too abstruse for those who wish to acquire in reasonable time, and with moderate attention, an useful, practical knowledge of mineralogy, whereof the students of the Wernerian and the chemical schools, may acquire a profitable and even a profound knowledge, without the aid of Hauy's diagrams-nor can these be applied at all unless to crystallized minerals; that is to one substance in a thousand-and as La Metheire fairly objected, a man may travel for a month together, sedulously occupied in geological and mineralogical pursuits, without meeting with one opportunity of putting Hauy's system in practice. Moreover, by calling forth such minute attention to the forms of crystals, it converts the science of mineralogy, into an object of curious and amusing speculation, fitter to dress out a lady's cabinet, than to instruct a practical man-and finally, there are so many anomalies, so many cases where dissimilar minerals have similar primitive forms, appertain to minerals not even remotely connected in chemical composition, that though no one can be hardy enough to deny

its occasional utility, it is a system, on which full reliance cannot be placed, even if the difficulties attending its application were fewer in number, and more easily surmounted.

Nor is much more reliance to be placed on a system founded entirely on chemical characters. A slight variation in the chemically constituent parts of a mineral, frequently occasions such manifest difference in the external appearance of it, that we cannot safely argue from the one to the other. The variations in composition of the carbonats of lime, or the sulphats of lime, are manifestly insufficient to account for one hundred and fifty varieties of external appearance and crystallization. Still, a man who studies mineralogy, ignorant or negligent of the application of chemistry to the science he pursues, never can place reliance on his own judgment of the name, nature, properties, or uses, of the mineral he handles. All the methods therefore of acquiring a knowledge of minerals must be brought into play, by those who would know them; and each of the modern systems must be made to contribute its portion of light. Thus, we judge of a man by his height, his bulk, his gait, his age, his voice, his complexion, his features, his dress, his gestures, his attitude, his manners, and soforth: we may easily mistake one man for another, if we rely on one mark alone, and therefore we are necessarily in the habit of forming our opinions from all together, if any doubts should arise as to identity of person.

Suppose the colonel of a regiment to have one thousand men under his command, he must resort, not to one means or character, but to every means and all the characters presented to his observation, if he would be come acquainted with the soldiers who compose his regiment, which it clearly is his duty to be. Nor is this too difficult or laborious for a person of good sense and industry: but to do this-to acquire a knowledge of the names and persons of the individual soldiers of a regiment, which a twelve month's application would enable any one to accomplish, requires double the labour and attention, that would be necessary to know at sight ninetenths of all the minerals that have yet been seen and described, collected on the surface or from within the bowels of the earth. It is not pretended that a knowledge of mineralogy is either speedily or easily acquired; but once pass the threshold of inquiry-become masters of the elements of the science-collect for yourselves the minerals you meet with, and that are as yet unknown to you-and the pleasure of the pursuit from thenceforward, is calculated to induce you to proceed, until a sufficient portion of knowledge is gained to render the study amusing, interesting, and useful, in a very high degree.

To enumerate all the modern labourers in the science, would be to extend an honourable list beyond the bounds which ought to be the limits of this lecture. The contributions of chemistry to mineralogy by means of Klaproth, Vauquelin, Berzelius, Hatchet, and others, have been great

indeed. Werner is very lately deceased; professor Jameson of Edinburgh, bas assumed his mantle, and treads in his footsteps, even where Werner is more than suspected to have gone astray. Hauy yet lives an honour to his country. In England the geological society, now most respectable for the number and talent of its members, is busily employed in extending the boundaries of this interesting science, whose votaries in that kingdom increase daily. In America we have not been idle. Mr. Maclure has presented the public with the only accurate and scientific account that has yet been published of the mineral formations of our own country; a work embracing a prodigious extent of observation briefly but luminously arranged. This gentleman has, in so many ways, benefitted and promoted the knowledge of mineralogy among us, that if I do not dwell more on the obligations the science is under to him, and the great merit of his geology of the United States, lately published in this city, it is because he is probably present on this occasion.

The mineralogy of professor Cleaveland of Bowdoin college, is also a work calculated to do honour to our country; nor does any other book present us with the locality of American minerals, so interesting, and indeed so necessary to our researches here. I am glad to find this useful compilation is likely to attract the notice of the public, and to meet with the success it so well deserves. It is an American book of great merit, by one of our own professors, containing notices of American mineralogy, not to be found in any European publication. Subsequent to the first edition of Mr. Maclure's pamphlet, but previous to the late one, Dr. Bruce's mineralogical journal appeared, containing some valuable papers by Dr. Bruce, colonel Gibbs, Dr. Heydn, and other lovers of the science in this country; these were so well received, that it is matter of surprise and regret that Dr. Bruce has not continued that work, so capable as he is of conducting it, from a thorough knowledge of the subject. The public will be glad to hear that the interval since the last number, does not amount to a discontinuance, but an intermission only, of that instructive collection.

In naming those who have contributed to promote mineralogical science among us, it would be unpardonable to neglect my able predecessor as a lecturer in mineralogy, M. Godon. To his lectures on the subject we owe so many successful cultivators of the science of mineralogy in this city; for he gave an impulse to the study, and an interest to the pursuit, which it never had here before. It is greatly to be regretted that the collection of M. Godon, now in my possession, is not destined to be illustrated by his own remarks, which have already so much contributed to extend the knowledge of mineralogy among us.

Among the contributors to American mineralogy, I have to mention one gentlemen, though last, not second in utility, to any other in this coun

try. To the magnificent liberality of colonel Gibbs, the mineralogy of the United States is indeed greatly indebted. His noble collection of minerals, appropriated to the studies of the young men at Yale college, under the care of Dr. Silliman, who so well seconds the views of the donor, is by far the most splendid in America: and is furnished to that college from motives so beneficial to the rising generation, and so honourable to himself, that colonel Gibbs deserves to be considered among the most estimable benefactors to his native land. He has at any rate the satisfaction to find, that the studies in which he is so conversant, have, by his means, been extended among the young men in the eastern portion of our continent, to a degree fully equal to all his reasonable expectations; and the seeds of knowledge which he has so generously contributed to sow, promise a plentiful harvest of improvement.

During the many years that mineralogy was thus noting and registering with patient and persevering labour, the natural marks and characters of each individual stone that differed, in any way, from another, a number of philosophers started up at various intervals, who scorned the slow-paced, tortoise-like progress of their fellow labourers-who substituted imagination for observation-and vainly thought that genius would compensate for patience and conjecture might be substituted for fact. These were the cosmogenists; the world-makers, whose systems sprung from their own busy but bewildered imaginations, have had no effect but to bewilder the imagination of others who follow them as guides. In fact, it has thus been with the philosophical world from the beginning; until Bacon showed that we must be content to proceed by the accumulation of facts, instead of the multiplication of words. For the last half century, men of science have been aware of the importance of his advice; though the propensity still continues in full vigour among the greater number of those who appear before the public as authors, to heap theory upon theory, and to instruct others before they have instructed themselves. Hence it is, that in the best of our systems of education, youth is taught what manhood will have to unlearn; the greater part of their years of study is occupied in learning words to which no accurate ideas are annexed, and the greater part of what remains in learning words to which false ideas are annexed. But the progress of science, though slow, is sure; and the time is advancing, when the knowledge of things, of the bodies that have real existence around us, with their properties and their uses, will be gradually substituted in lieu of words and phrases without meaning or architype-the cups and balls of literary juglers from the dawn of knowledge to the present day. The utility of learn

ing, no one who possesses it, will venture to deny; but we cannot shut our eyes to the frequent recurrence of the fact, that men may be learned without being wise.