308
ON THE NATURAL HISTORY
perplex," I must confess to being rather attracted by his "strain
of low pleasantry" ; it is so different from what one generally
expects in a learned mineralogist.
Perhaps the title itself is a good sample of Henckel's
prolixity. Here it is, as given in the original :
PYR1TOLOGIA, oder : Kiess-Historie, als des vornehmsten Minerals,
nach dessen Nahmen, Arten, Lagerstatten, Ursprung, Eisen, Kupffer,
unmetalhscher Erde, Schwefel, Arsenic, Silber, Gold, einfachen Theilgen, Vitriol
und Schmeltz Nutzung, aus vieler Sammlung, Gruben-Befahrung, Umgang und
Brief-Wechsel mit Natur-und-Berg-Verstiindigen, vornehmlich aus Chymischer
Untersuchung, mit Physicalisch-Chymischen Endeckungen, nebst lebheften und
nothigen Kupffern, wie auch einer Vorrede vom Nutzen des Bergwercks,
insonderheitdes Chur-Sachsischen, gefertiget von D. Johann Friedrich Henckel,
konigl. Poln. und Churfurstl. Sachs. Land-Berg-und Stadt-Physico in Freyberg.
Leipzig: 1725.
As the original work runs to upwards of a thousand pages, it
is small wonder that the English translator cut it down pretty
freely. Unfortunately, however, he omits Henckel's general
observations on the study of natural science, since they have no-
direct bearing on Pyrites ; but as Henckel was an educational
reformer, distinctly in advance of his day, I feel inclined to rescue
some of the original passages.
Henckel tells us that from early youth he had entertained a
strong passion for the study of nature, and he soon saw that it was
not enough to study books, or even to work in the cabinet ; it was
absolutely necessary, if progress were to be made, that he should
go out into the field, and study nature in all her freshness. It is
clear, therefore, that if Henckel were now living hereabouts, we
should find his name on the roll of members of the Essex Field
Club.
Himself a devout lover of nature, he could hardly understand
why others failed to share his tastes. "Most people," he
complains, "think more of a flower painted by a human artist
than a flower fresh from the hands of Nature : they put the one
into a gilt frame, while they trample the other underfoot." And
among his words of wisdom, he counsels us to study with
reverence the commonest natural objects around us. He has no
patience with those who prize only what is rare—or as he puts
it, those who are attracted by the lofty cedar of Lebanon, but
will not deign to glance at the hyssop or the humble herb that
springeth out of the wall. And then the enthusiastic pyritologist