A system of mineralogy, comprising most recent discoveries / Система минералогии, включающая самые последние открытия

The productions of our globe naturally distribute themselves into three grand divisions, the Animal, the Vegetable, and the Mineral or Inorganic; and our knowledge of the various kinds of objects in these departments constitutes the natural sciences, Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy.
The first two divisions include all beings possessed of vitality: beings which increase by an assimilation of nutritive substances taken internally; which arrive at maturity by a series of successive developments; whose parts are mutually dependent, and cannot be separated without destroying the perfection of the individual; which, after a certain period, lose the capability of continuing the usual functions of life, and consequently die. The powers of vitality being no longer present to counteract decomposition, death is soon followed by a complete destruction of the original living being.
The third division, on the contrary, contains those natural objects that are not possessed of life; objects which increase by accretion merely, or an external addition of particles unaltered by any powers of assimilation in the object; which are equally perfect in the embryo state or at the earliest commencement of their formation, and in the enlarged individual; whose individuality is not destroyed by a separation of parts; whose formation is originally the result of chemical attraction, and, consequently, they are not, from their nature, necessarily liable to decomposition. <...>