THEIR LIFE AND AFFINITY. 231 



of surface with other forms, approaches more nearly the spherical form, 

 as that which is perfectly compact, thoroughly symmetrical, and there- 

 fore fundamentally organic. The icosahedron, for instance, approaches 

 the spherical form more nearly than the octahedron does ; it is also 

 important to observe that the most precious crystals, and especially the 

 diamond, (which being pure carbon, is therefore, from its composition, 

 most closely allied to the organized bodies,) are those wherein we ob- 

 serve the most compact crystallization, at least that which approaches 

 most nearly to the sphere and is therefore in nowise columnar ; where- 

 fore the diamond, particularly on account of its power of refraction, 

 has a closer resemblance to a solid drop of water*. This view, by 

 showing how crystallization may be examined, from the three-sided 

 pyramid and the cube upwards to the most many-sided forms, or those 

 which approach nearest to the sphere, may place the theory of crystal- 

 lization on a more natural and therefore a more philosophical basis. 

 On the other hand we must also take into consideration the copies, or 

 rather the prototypes, of the form of really organized bodies which 

 occur in the solidification of the fluid. It is by no means without a 

 cause, nor to be regarded as a mere lusus naturcB, (a very unmeaning 

 expression,) that pure water in its crystallization assumes forms whicl? 

 correspond most closely with those of inferior organizations : thus the 

 flakes of snow represent the forms of Polypi, Asterias, and Medusae ; 

 we find in the ice on windows the forms of many vegetable sub- 

 stances, leaves, stems, flowers; the earth too and some metallic sub- 

 stances present, when melted or united with water, similar types, in 

 which we see the condition under which Dendrites and the manifold 

 forms of native ores originate. In all this the moving creating life of 

 the original fluid cannot pass unnoticed, and becomes still more 

 evident if we examine the history of the origin of organized bodies, 

 in which the fluid appears as the basis both of animal and ve- 

 getable life ; and thus the very germ of individual organisms is inti- 

 mately connected with the life of the planet. Indeed this is partly true 

 of the solid parts of the earth ; for it is easy to show, even in the fossil 

 kingdom, a transition partly to animal and partly to vegetable life ; so 

 much so, that a philosophical inquirer, Henry Steffensf , has been led, 

 from a comparison of several facts, to establish two very probable pro- 

 positions relating to this subject : 



" 1 . In the whole silicious series (of fossils),— -which constitutes the 

 chief mass in the oldest and principal mountains of our earth, which goes 

 through all periods, and in its bituminous substances exhibits the re- 

 mains of an extinct vegetation, yet connected as a living member with 

 the whole existing vegetation by the marsh-turf, — carbon and hydrogen 

 (the essential elements of the vegetable kingdom) are the principal 



• On the formation of the water-drop, see p. 229. 



t See Beitraffe xur NaturffeschicfUe der Erde: pp. 58 and 09. Freyberg, 1801. 



r2 



