praife, than they derive from a comparison with the performances of other mineralogical travellers. His ardent pursuit of science was aided by the remarkable acutenefs of his talent for obfervation; and the knowledge which he had acquired, was fpeedily diffufed by the happy perfpicuity of his defcriptions. But the boldness and improbability of his theories, the light grounds on which they were affumed, and the eafe with which they were relinquished, have been urged as proofs that his mind was frivolous, and his judgment defective.

We have seen too many remarkable inftances of the triumphs of imagination, to allow the afpect or defcription of those theoretic phantoms, which the wifeft of us are fometimes amufed by embodying, to have much weight in the appretiation of a man's intellectual powers. We conceive judgment to confist rather in a nice adjustment of the feveral faculties of the mind, than in one independant quality. In this view, the judgment of Dolomieu cannot be difputed; for he was moft judicious in obfervation, and most judicious in defcription. So accurate was his judgment in matters of fcience, and fo profound his contempt for the little jealoufies of theorists, that he repeatedly abandoned his own opinions, and adopted thofe fuggefted by others, whofe ingenuity he never failed to reward by fuitable praife, and whose hints often received from him extenfion and confiftence. Never has the veracity of Dolomieu been queftioned, or the flightest fufpicion arifen, that he distorted facts to favour his hypothetical affumptions: His writings are referred to as evidence, by the most oppofite theorists, and with a confidence equally implicit. In most inftances, his opinions are ftill the ftandard of authority among the best informed geologifts; and he has only been betrayed into idle fpeculation on thofe fubjects, which have not derived additional illuftration from the fapient cogitations of his critics.

Great as the individual exertions and fuccefs of Dolomieu have been, they were furpaffed by the indirect fervices which he rendered to fcience, by his zealous patronage of men of talents, by the franknefs with which he communicated his ample stores of information to the young men who accompanied him in his travels, and by the unbounded liberality with which he diftributed the rare and valuable fubftances he collected. Yet nearly two of the last years of this man's life were spent in prifons, into which he was thrown by a violent abufe of arbitrary power; and nearly

half

Sir James Hall is an honourable exception; for his experiments on the transition from glafs to ftone have entirely obviated the difficulty which forced Dolomieu into one of his wildeft conjectures.

half of that time he was confined in a dungeon, in whofe mephitic atmosphere fuffocation would have enfued from a recumbent pofture, and where the violent efforts, fometimes required to maintain refpiration, made him vomit blood. In the folitude and horror of this dungeon, the plan of the work we are about to examine was conceived, and its arrangement digefted. Portions of it were written between the lines of fome books he accidentally retained, with fplinters of wood inftead of a pen, and with ink made by mixing the foot of his lamp with water. For his deliverance from this fepulchral den, Dolomieu was chiefly indebted to the generous interpofition of the Royal Society of London, and of their worthy prefident; and to the powerful influence of an heroic admiral, who endeavoured, by this act, to efface the ftains which his glory had received from the imputation of a violated capitulation.

The health of Dolomieu, however, was never completely reftored; and he died in less than a year after his release, and foon after the termination of a journey in Switzerland, during part of which he was accompanied by a Dane, called Neergaard.

This perfonage has attempted to perform for Dolomieu the pofthumous attentions paid by Boswell to Dr Johnson, by Biffet to Burke, and, in a more recent inftance, by Mifs Seward to Dr Darwin. Like these illuftrious biographers, he undoubtedly expects to enjoy celebrity, as high-prieft in the Temple of Fame which he has erected; and, in this happy perfuafion, he has given to the world, and more especially to the trunk-makers and pastrycooks of Paris, a performance which boasts three distinct titles: For, in the first page, it is called Journal d'un Danois; in the title page, Journal du dernier Voyage du Citoyen Dolomieu; and at the top of the first page of the text, Journal de mon Voyage avec le Citoyen Dolomieu. As the firft and the laft of thefe defcriptions are in fome degree applicable to the performance, we shall not ftop to inquire what right the fecond had to ufurp the titlepage. Indeed, as the work is altogether foreign to the treatife we are about to confider, we perhaps ought to difmifs it entirely; but there is fomething fo feducing in the found of Dernier Voyage du Citoyen Dolomieu (the title to which it has no real claim), that our readers may not think a very few obfervations entirely mifplaced, or devoid of intereft.

Did we not know, that the Danes, in general, are more prudent than witty, we fhould think the author of this Journal had been expatriated by the ridicule of his countrymen; but as the intelligent part of them would certainly have endeavoured to keep concealed fo deplorable a fpecimen of the breed, we have rejected this fuppofition in favour of another, which we have good

reafen

reafon to believe correct. Among those who bear fway in Denmark, fome are to be found, who, from congeniality of fentiment and talent, have graciously confidered M. Neergaard as a proper perfon to be fitted out as a fcientific privateer, to accumulate and carry home the arts and fciences of Europe. Fortunately for the fuccefs and economy of this enterprize, M. Neergaard concentrates the most oppofite attainments: he is equally profound in painting, mufic, chymistry, mineralogy, betler lettres, antiquities, and agriculture. In every page of this jour nal, he pafles, with inimitable nimbleness and facility, from one of thele fciences to another, and thereby affords an attentive reader frequent opportunities of gleaning much diverfified infor mation.

He tells us, that Dolomieu had no theory at hand to explain the Roche polie, and that he wondered how Bonaparte and his cannon paffed St Gothard; he finds, in the churches of Sion, the Madonna Santiflima painted with the face of a Cretin; and we are informed, that Dolomieu gave alms to a cripple at the baths of Leuk, where the author drank excellent Mufcat wine. Moreover, that the travellers were received at Leuk, in the house of a man who was not an innkeeper, but one of the first nobles of the country; that he charged them the value of what they eat; and that Dolomieu was much delighted with this modern bof pitality. After defcribing a cafcade, he fagely remarks, that if travelling is expenfive to him on one hand, it is economical on the other; for he will never make an artificial cafcade, after feeing thofe of Norway and Switzerland. We have tranflated this remark at full length, as it is infinitely the best in the book; and if M. Neergaard's refolution was generally adopted, much money might be faved, and the difplay of much bad tafte prevented. As Sauffure has already recorded fome inftances of the inhofpitality of Alpine curés, our readers probably have been more furprised at M. Neergaard's late effort of fagacity, than they will be, at being informed that the paftor of St Roch refused bread to the travellers, though he afterwards gave fome to their mules. Every one, however, may not be aware, that it is the mode in Switzerland, for perfons to have a piece of chalk always in their hands to make calculations; and, accustomed as we were to M. Neergaard's vivacity of tranfition, we were fomewhat aftonished at being told, immediately after a magnificent declamation of Dolomieu's on the best way of forming fpecimens, that every body there eats brocoli, a kind of cauliflower very common in Italy.' During the time the travellers remained in the mountains, Dolomieu is occafionally feen, though kept as much as poffible in the back-ground. The Dane Neergaard is every where the prin

cipal figure; and a Benedictine of Difcentir, whofe brethren appear to have been concerned in a maffacre of French prifoners, complimented him on the good reception Copenhagen had given the English. After their arrival at Berne, Dolomieu almoft entirely difappears; and the whole attention of M. Neergaard is occupied in panegyrizing fome obfcure artifts, moft of whom poffefs the limited and equivocal reputation he labours to at tain for himfelf. The remainder of the volume contains fundry paffages equally precious with thofe we have quoted; but we do not propofe to increase our selection; and haften to the conclufion, where we find, to our inexpreffible fatisfaction, that the travellers having feparated fome days before the commencement of Dolomieu's fatal illness, the tranquillity of his laft hours was not difturbed by the impertinence of his foi-difant friend. *

Let us turn to a work of a very different caft, Sur la Philofophie Mineralogique.?

The fimilarity of the title will not, we hope, induce any one to fuppofe that this tract resembles, in any respect, a book called the Philofophy of Mineralogy, which was published in this country fome years ago. That was the crude performance of a man, who had just learnt enough of the German fyftem, to observe some of its glaring defects, but who had not fufficient genius to suggest an adequate remedy; who, conceiving his imperfect and limited geological knowledge to comprise all the arcana of the science, imagined that an ill arranged compilation of the common-place notions on geology, and on the defcription and claflification of minerals, could deferve the high-founding title of the Philofophy. of Mineralogy.'

The effay we are about to examine Sur la Philofophie Mineral

ogique,'

It is not our intention to be either the biographers or eulogifts of Dolomieu; but we think it an honourable department of our duty to rescue illuftrious characters from mifreprefentation. Perhaps fome of our readers may not have been informed, that, at an early period of his life, Dolomieu faved most of the fick in an hofpital from being burnt to death, by expofing his own life in cutting off the communication of the flames that at the most atrocious period of the Revolution he had the intrepidity to publish an eloquent tribute to the virtues of the murdered La Rochefoucault, and a terrible denunciation against his authorised af faffins-that when, on his release from prifon, the First Conful defired him to ask what he pleased, he was contented with demanding the erazure of his eldest brother's name from the lift of emigrants-and that when he was elected a profeffor at the Jardin des Plants, he refigned his commiffion as engineer of mines, because, he faid, many men of me rit needed the falary more than he did.

ogique,' is the work of a man who was acquainted with all exifting fyitems, and fenfible of their defects; who had genius to de vile a remedy, and judgment to point out its application. This work has nothing to do with prefent fyitems, but to expose their errors; and proceeds no farther in framing a new one, than to define, clearly, the line that thould be purfued.

Mineralogy, properly to called, may be practical or philofophical. Its practical employment confifts in the research and examination of all mineral fubitances, in recognizing and diftinguishing them, in naming and arranging them in determinate fpecies and convenient genera, in defcribing them with exactness, and affembling them to form collections. To philofophical mineralogy be long-the examination of methods practically employed--the inveitigation of all the properties of which minerals are fufceptible, that from their comparifon diftinctive and fpecific characters may be deduced-the right of determining the meaning of the words. employed, and of affixing precife and invariable terms to every modification of fubftances-the formation of methods for the arrangement and defcription of minerals-the right of criticizing fyitems propofed or adopted-the hiftory of what has been done for the advancement of the fcience, and of the caufes which have advanced or retarded it-and the indication of every thing that can facilitate the progrefs of the mineralogift, that can affist his labours, or fimplify his refearches.

Important as thefe confiderations are, they have been treated with comparative neglect. The attention of mineralogifts has been almoft entirely occupied by the more fhowy toil of accumulating fpecimens into clafles and genera, dividing them into fpecies, and arranging them in cabinets. They forgot to examine, by strict philofophic inquiry, the foundation of their divifions, the justice of their criteria, or the propriety of their arrangement. Though no mineralogift, fince the time of Bergman, has written expressly on the philofophical part of the fubject, many have indirectly contributed to its advancement. Werner did much, by limiting the meaning of the terms employed, and by proving the vaft utility of external characters in the difcrimination of minerals. Yet Werner left the fubject extremely imperfect, by his voluntary rejection of internal characters, and by his abf lute neglect of all fixed rules in determining the fpecies. This negligence, indeed, has been common to every fyltein of mineralogy that has appeared, and the most extraordinary and prejudicial confufion has refulted

VOL. IV. NO. 8.

T

* When Dolomieu compofed this effay, the Traité de Mineralogir by Hauy was not publifhed. In moit refpefts it is compofed on fuch a plan as he indicates.