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OI TIIE OBJECTS OF MINERALOGY. XV different dimensions. These fissures are not often empty, but are partially, and sometimes, though but rarely, filled with stony or metalliferous substances. They are termed Mineral Veins; and from them a large proportion of the specimens composing the cabinet of the mineralogist are obtained ; indeed almost all such as, from their rarity, brilliancy, or peculiarity of form and combin ation, possess the greatest attraction for the mere collector. Mineralogy is a science of such interest, that it would be much to be regretted if its real objects and tendency were misunder stood, or suffered to degenerate into an avidity merely for the collecting of what is brilliant or rare. To the attainment of the science of geology, which is intimately connected with agricul ture and the arts ol'life, that of mineralogy is essentially requi site. The study of mineralogy therefore does not include only a knowledge of the more rare and curious minerals: there is no thing in the mineral kingdom too elevated or too low for the attention of the mineralogist, from the substances composing the summits of the loftiest mountains, to the sand or gravel on which he treads. It is true that the aggregated masses of com pound rocks are not arranged in a mineralogical collection ; but it must be remembered that each of the substances of which such aggregated masses are constituted, are comprehended in a mineralogical arrangement, and therefore find their places in the cabinet. Granite, indeed, is not to be found there ; but its components, quartz, felspar, and mica, arc met with in every one. Thus, then, by the study of what, in opposition to the term aggregated rocks, may be termed simple minerals, the mineral ogist becomes enabled to detect the substance with which he holds acquaintance by itself, when aggregated with others in a mass; and thus he becomes qualified for the more difficult and more important study of the science of geology, which embraces a knowledge of the nature and respective positions of the masses and beds composing mountains, and indeed of country of every description, whether mountainous or otherwise. It is not, therefore, or at least it ought not to be, the sole ob ject of the mineralogist to be able to distinguish the several genera and species of mineral substances ; nor should his atten tion be confined to the mere task of recognising a mineral at first sight, or of bei.ig capable of at once assigning it a proper place in his cabinet. He should hold a more enlarged acquaint ance with minerals, and with the circumstances attending them, in what may be termed their native places; he should know something of the positions they respectively bear towards each other in those places; lie should become acquainted with their relative ages, deduced from the nature of the rocks in which they are found ; their comparative scarcity or abundance ; their com-