and unattached to those who had shared them. His inhuman treatment of his youngest sister, the Princess Amelia, and her unfortunate lover, the Baron Trenck, is a stain on his fame, which not all the parade of sentiment in some of his writings will be able to efface. Nor indeed is there much more honesty in his affection towards the Princess of Bareith. Even long after she complains of the loss of his affection, he says, in an Epitre a ma Bareith"* with what sincerity, will easily be imagined. Si sous mes pas tremblans la terre est entr'ouverte Si la foule des Rois a conjuré ma perte, sœur de Qu' importe! Vous m'aimez, tendre et sensible sœur : Upon the whole, though these Memoirs will doubtless be read with considerable pleasure on account of the anecdotes they contain, illustrating the manners of the period at which they were written, the predominating sensation in every wellregulated mind, we think, will be one of deep disgust at the display of meanness, deceit and profligacy they exhibit, among persons, upon whom the happiness of so many thousands of their fellow creatures was made to depend. Art. V. Petralogy. A Treatise on Rocks. By J. Pinkerton. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. lxxvi, 600, 656. White. 1811. AFTER having driven the Celts of antiquity to the very verge of literary existence, and humanely doomed these savages, who are denied even the rank of barbarians, to everlasting wretchedness* ;-after having enriched our libraries with a ponderous system of geography, which is demonstrated to surpass all that have gone before it, by the supreme contempt with which almost all other writers on the subject are treated, past, present, and to come;-after having spread a monthly banquet for the public, in a collection of voyages and travels, rather the worse indeed for keeping, but still equally good with some collections circulated in smaller portions, with brickcoloured covers;-after all these meritorious and arduous undertakings, Mr. Pinkerton, commiserating the wants of mineralogy, generously steps forward as its reformer,-to introduce new arrangements in place of the absurd classification,' (p. xiii) hitherto employed,-to purge the nomenclature from appellations with which the classical language of our fathers' has *Oeuvres posthume de Frederic II. Tom. Vll. p. 155. "The Celts are savages, have been savages since the world began, and and will be for ever savages; mere radical savages, not yet advanced even to a state of barbarism.”—Pinkerton's Dissert. p. 68. been polluted, by a truly German want of taste;"(p. xx.) and finally by introducing one of his own, equally precise and rich,'-out of this 'chaos' of science to form a world.' French politeness has already conferred upon him, as he modestly informs us, the appellation of the ENGLISH STRABO. Should his Petralogy attain to a second edition, we confidently expect that he will add to his titles, that of the BRITISH PLINY. Nor is it by any means probable that his glorious course will terminate here. We are quite convinced that Mr. Pinkerton has at least equal abilities and means to dispute the wreath of fame with every writer of antiquity;-but we will not anticipate his future achievements, while his feats in Petralogy afford such ample scope for admiration. To these we now beg leave to direct the attention of our readers-though neither our limits nor our abilities leave us room to hope that we shall do them all the justice they deserve. The primary object in this publication was, evidently, to make a book; and we must admire the writer's boldness, at any rate, however we may blame his judgement, in choosing that precise subject, of which, among the many he has yet meddled with, he appears to know the very least. It is rather puzzling, certainly, to pronounce on what determined him to this choice; but the following solution appears probable. In order to compile his Geography, which, with its numerous imperfections and gross mistakes, has the merit of being extracted from original documents, Mr. Pinkerton was unavoidably necessitated to consult a great number of writers, many of whom declared they could afford only a small contribution to his pair of quartos. On this stubborn parsimony our author resolved to be revenged; and by great good luck he discovered that the greater part of his waste researches would incorporate in a General Collection of Voyages and Travels. Of the shreds. which remained, a majority were found to relate to geology, mineralogy, and the allied sciences, and Petralogy was accordingly pitched upon as the title of the patch-work they were to compose. The question still remained, how they were to be united, so as to produce the best effect. For this purpose nothing could be more cheap and obvious than a new system: and we can readily believe, that Mr. P. composed several, before he hit upon the one with which we are here presented. The explanation of this system, interlarded with a due portion of contempt for other writers on the same subject, who are of course to be taxed with 'barbarism' and 'absurdity,' affords an ample introduction. A due quantity of the scraps are then ground down, so that their constituent parts are not readily discernible. A number more are rendered sufficiently pliable by such additions as- Dr. Babington in his catalogue men tions Mr. Jameson in his Mineralogy has promised Dolomieu has also observed'-' Patrin says'-and the like. A catalogue of minerals is clipped into pieces agreeably to the division intended, and such observations as the author could furnish added to the whole and with these the fragments which are honestly placed between inverted commas, and referred to their proper owners, are fastened together. As the principal value of the work evidently depends on the nature of these extracts, which constitute full five hundred and twenty pages out of eleven hundred and fifty-eight of which the work consists; it will be satisfactory to know, that Saussure has furnished above one hundred, and Dolomieu about half that quantity. Besides these many names in high estimation occur; among others Daubuisson, Bronchant, Ferber, Werner, Patrin, Kirwah, Jameson, Klaproth, Helms, Zoega, Ferrara, Spalanzani, Faujas, Bourrit, Burnet, Karsten, Kidd, Playfair, &c. &c. It may be imagined that, when Mr. Pinkerton surveyed this composition, its motley garb could not but strike him as calculated to excite the laughter of an uncivil public; and we admire his address and good humour in joining in the smile at his own perfomance. These extracts will,' says he, it is hoped, from the variety of the style, throw some flowers over a subject proverbially barren; while the expressions of the observers themselves, in the sensations arising from grand phenomena, sometimes enliven the subject with somewhat of a dramatic interest. It must also be remembered that mosaic is even more difficult than painting, and of incomparably longer duration. Some regard it as a maxim in literature, that a book should be as complete in itself as possible; and a reference to a work, which he can neither procure nor read, would contribute little to the instruction of the learner. The candid will likewise consider the entire novelty of the plan, &c. !!' p. xlvi. We will not, however, be quite as severe upon Mr. Pinkerton as he is upon himself. Though the persons speaking in the work frequently change, their speeches are too long, and the principal, great I, in the interposed matter is too distinctly marked, to admit of its being mistaken for a mineralogical drama, nor can his book with any justice be accused of error, from being too complete. But to enable our readers to judge for themselves, we shall proceed to give a brief sketch of the contents of the introduction, and an extract or two from the mosaic. The first section opens with informing us, that The study of natural history has been divided by the most esteemed authors, and by the general voice, into three kingdoms, the animal, (the) vegetable, and (the) mineral.' Mr. Pinkerton probably means that nature, or, if she must be personified, the productions of nature, have been thus divided, but he ought to have known that this has been done upon more cogent grounds than the consent of the most esteemed authors,' or 'the general voice.' He further observes that these kingdoms have again been subdivided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties,' and then discloses a grand discovery that the common meaning' of these terms' implies a vital or animated principle.' This fixes him comfortably in the saddle; and he spurs forward to run a tilt against all the mineralogists of whatever age or country, who have used these terms. Whe-. ther they will submit to the laws of the ring, which he lays down, is as yet doubtful. Human systems' we are told' are to be regarded as mere artificial memories,' a truth which Mr. Pinkerton is so anxious to impress on his readers, that he assiduously repeats it wherever opportunity occurs. Because authors apply the terms genus, species and variety differently, they must not be used at all; because the species in the organic kingdoms produce a progeny, and minerals do not procreate, it is altogether false and unnatural' to calumniate minerals with the term. As we proceed, we learn that these terms when applied to animals and vegetables convey'substantial ideas which belong to real knowledge, and which the mind grasps, so to speak, as solid and tangible,' whereas, when transferred to minerals, they are wholly arbitrary.' And lastly we find that they are attributes peculiar to living substances.' The manifest absurdity' of former writers, who entertained an idea that systems were more than mere artificial memories, being thus made out; Mr. P. proceeds to furnish us with a new nomenclature which shall convey substantial, solid, and tangible ideas of the mineral kingdom. The precise meaning of his expression 'a new nomenclature of arrangement' is not quite evident; and the assertion that novelty itself is apt to displease;' displeases for other reasons besides novelty. We will, however, not detain the reader with these trifles, (which would have passed unnoticed had not Mr. P. on a former occasion, when speaking of his style, hinted something of having been at the feet of Gamaliel') but hasten to communicate the outlines of his system. The animal and vegetable kingdoms consist of living subjects, which of course may be well considered as divided into classes, orders, genera, and species; but in the mineral kingdom the territory alone constitutes the subject of discussion. He would propose therefore that the mineral kingdom be considered as divided into three provinces: PETRALOGY, or the knowledge of rocks, or stones which occur in large masses: LITHOLOGY, or the knowledge of gems and small stones: METALLOGY, or the knowledge of metals.' These are to supply the place of classes; and with what immense superiority of precision and science, must be manifest to the most obtuse intellect; only it might have been as well to mention, what are the exact dimensions of great and small. The provinces are again to be subdivided into DOMAINS, and Petralogy has twelve allotted as its share. The first six being distinguished by the substances themselves, may be called SUBSTANTIAL; while the remaining six, being distinguished by circumstances or accidences of various kinds may be called CIRCUMSTANTIAL OF ACCIDENTAL; but this last division is of little moment. The first six domains of petralogy comprise, 1. The siderous rocks, or those in which iron predominates, not in the comparative quantity when analysed, but in the quality and essential difference which it imparts. 2. The sileceous, denominated as usual from the quantity of silex. 3. The argillaceous. 4. The magnesian; these two are again denominated from predominance. 5. The calcareous. 6. The carbonaceous. The remaining six domains, derived from circumstances or accidences, are seven, the composite, or aggregated rocks, as calcareous spar, with schorl, quartz, and garnets, felspar, and siderite, or hornblende, &c. This domain has often been confounded with the granites, however alien from that description. 8. The diamictonic, or rocks in which the substances are so completely mingled, that it is difficult, even upon an analysis, to pronounce which predominates. 9. The anomalous, or those which contradict the common order of nature, and present unexpected and unusual combinations. Some of these domains, though they afford few objects at present, may in the progress of science, be greatly enriched and enlarged; and the utility of such divisions will be more perceptible as the study advances towards perfection, the greatest obscurity at present arising from want of necessary subdivisions. The remaining three domains are generally admitted in geological works, namely. 10. The transilient rocks, an interesting series, in which one substance gradually passes into another, as granite into porphyry, trap into wacken, and the like. 11. The decomposed rocks, which gradually decay into sand, clay, or productive soil. 12. The volcanic, which require no other description.' pp. iv, v. These domains, must serve as a substitute for orders. The smaller distinctions,' Mr. P. informs us, 'can only be derived from the objects themselves,' and what are denominated species, in the arbitrary and unnatural systems' of mineralogists, are henceforward to be called modes, which must be chiefly understood to refer to the chemical mode of combination upon which the nature of the substances, as is now allowed by the greatest chemists, is yet more dependant, than even upon the ingredients combined.'-A definition of combination,' and the nature of substances,' would not have been misapplied in this place. |