SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM. 81 



the molecules act upon each other without the inter- 

 vention of slave labour ; that they attract each other, 

 and repel each other, at certain definite points, or poles, 

 and in certain definite directions ; and that the pyra- 

 midal form is the result of this play of attraction and 

 repulsion. While, then, the blocks of Egypt were 

 laid down by a power external to themselves, these 

 molecular blocks of salt are self-posited, being fixed 

 in their places by the inherent forces with which they 

 act upon each other. 



I take common salt as an illustration, because it is 

 so familiar to us all ; but any other crystalline sub- 

 stance would answer my purpose equally well. Every- 

 where, in fact, throughout inorganic nature, we have 

 this formative power, as Fichte would call it this 

 structural energy ready to come into play, and build 

 the ultimate particles of matter into definite shapes. 

 The ice of our winters, and of our polar regions, is its 

 handiwork, and so also are the quartz, felspar, and 

 mica of our rocks. Our chalk-beds are for the most 

 part composed of minute shells, which are also the pro- 

 duct of structural energy ; but behind the shell, as a 

 whole, lies a more remote and subtle formative act. 

 These shells are built up of little crystals of calc-spar, 

 and, to form these crystals, the structural force had to 

 deal with the intangible molecules of carbonate of lime. 

 This tendency on the part of matter to organise itself, 

 to grow into shape, to assume definite forms in 

 obedience to the definite action of force, is, as I have 

 said, all-pervading. It is in the ground on which you 

 tread, in the water you drink, in the air you breathe. 

 Incipient life, as it were, manifests itself throughout the 

 whole of what we call inorganic nature. 



The forms of the minerals resulting from this play 

 of polar forces are various, and exhibit different degrees 



VOL. II. G 



