IK CLOUDS AND RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS. 





FIG. 2. SNOW CRYSTALS. 



points over their surfaces ; you can then pic- 

 ture them, in obedience to their mutual at- 

 tractions and repulsions, building themselves 

 together to form masses of definite shape and 

 structure. 



( J5. Imagine the molecules of water in 

 cairn cold air to be gifted with poles of this 

 description, which compel the particles to la}' 

 themselves together in a detiaite order, anil 

 you have before your mind's eye the unseen 

 architecture which finally produces the visi-- 



ble and beautiful crystals of tbf r.aow. 

 Thus our first notions and conceptions of 

 poles are obtained from the sight ol' o\ir eyes 

 in looking at the effects of magnetism ; and 

 we then transfer these notions and concep- 

 tions to particles which no eye has ever 

 seen. The power by which we thus picture 

 to ourselves effects beyond the range of the 

 senses is what philosophers call the Imagina- 

 tion, and in the effort of the mind to seize 

 upon the unseen architecture of crystals, we 



