One Reason I Want To Study Rocks and Minerals

That Rocks and Minerals book I mentioned recently is good for identifying rocks and minerals, but it doesn't give enough information. What I really want to do is study mineralogy, and learn the chemical and crystal properties of various minerals. For some reason, I love these passages from Chapter 6 of "Rose in Bloom" by Louisa May Alcott: "I wish we were all children again, with no hearts to perplex us and no great temptations to try us," she said to herself as she rested a minute in a quiet nook while her partner went to get a glass of water. Right in the midst of this half-sad, half-sentimental reverie, she heard a familiar voice behind her say earnestly: "And allophite is the new hydrous silicate of alumina and magnesia, much resembling pseudophite, which Websky found in Silesia." "What is Mac talking about!" she thought. And, a bit later: And Rose paused that they might listen to the following burst of eloquence from Mac's lips: "You know Frenzal has shown that the globular forms of silicate of bismuth at Schneeburg and Johanngeorgenstadt are not isometric, but monoclinic in crystalline form, and consequently he separates them from the old eulytite and gives them the new name Agricolite." I, like Rose, want to know what Mac is talking about. I'd also like to find out about Websky and Frenzal! I'm going to look up allophite, pseudophite, eulytite, and agricolite online. One comment: It was just too bad that Mac was so absorbed in talking to the professor that he left the party without Rose! I may have blogged about this in another form elsewhere!