50 LOVES MEINIE. 



progenitor ; and it would have been ingeniously ex- 

 plained to you how tlie angular offspring of this eight- 

 sided ancestor had developed themselves, by force of 

 circnmstances, into their distinct metallic perfections ; 

 how the galena had become grey and brittle under pro- 

 longed subterranean ]ieat,-and the gold yellow and ductile, 

 as it was rolled among the pebbles of amber-coloured 

 streams. 



60, By the denial to these structures of any indi\ddu- 

 ally reproductive energy, you are forced to accept the 

 inexplicable (and why expect it to be otherwise than 

 inexplicable ?) fact, of the formation of a series of bodies 

 having very similar aspects, qualities, and chemical rela- 

 tions to other substances, which yet have no connection 

 whatever witli each other, and are governed, in their 

 relation with their native rocks, by entirely arbitrary laws. 

 It has been the j^ride of modern chemistry to extricate 

 herself from the vanity of the alchemist, and to admit, 

 Avith resignation, the independent, though apparently 

 fraternal, natures, of silver, of lead, of platinum, — alumi- 

 nium, — potassium. Hence, a rational philosophy would 

 deduce the probability that when the arborescence of 

 dead crystallization rose into the radiation of the living 

 tree, and sentient plume, the splendour of nature in her 

 more exalted power would not be restricted to a less 

 variety of design ; and the beautiful caprice in which she 

 gave to the silver its frost, and to the opal its fire, would 

 not be subdued under the slow influences of accident and 



