Crystalline Form. 223 



The first of these signs is the crystalline form. 

 And what a brilliant language is here introduced ! 

 We have been delighted with the beauty of its 

 characU i while unable to translate a sir. 



word, and perhaps ignorant that they were signs 

 of a language, old as creation, and sure as the 

 divine oracles. It sparkles from every grain of 

 sand, -litters from every well-filled cabinet, and 

 streams forth in joyous gushing beams from the 

 " Mountain of Light." The precious gems, like the 

 stars, have in all ages delighted men by their bril- 

 liancy. But it is in the study of their angles, the 

 planes of cleavage, and the position of their axes, 

 that the ablest minds have found a life employment, 

 and seen the deepest beauties of the mineral king- 

 dom. It is inter > trace the progress of mind 



^ing towards truth, peering into the myriad of 

 crystalline forms, coming nearer and nearer to the 

 true translation, sometimes reading a sentence cor- 



:]y without daring to vouch for its truth, or able 

 to join others to complete the story, until Ilatiy, by 

 the fortunate crushing of a crystal, found in its 

 broken fragments the primitive form, the first intel- 

 ligible key to this hitherto obscure language. 



Minds that had been groping in darkness, now 

 saw light flashing from the very midst of that dark- 

 ness. Then was called in mathematics, that ever- 

 ivady instrument of progress in science. Whole 

 volumes were filled with problems relating to this 



artment of nature. What were all those prob- 

 lems ? Not the work of men, as we too often think 



