554. The earth has without doubt originated according to the 

 laws of the polyhedron, which represents in the nearest manner the 

 globe. The polyhedron of the globe is the rhomboidal dodecahedron. 



555. The land cannot therefore have an equal elevation every- 4 

 where above the water, because the crystal consists of edges, angles, 

 and surfaces or sides. The mountain tops are probably the angles, 

 the mountain ridges or chains the edges, the plains the lateral sur- 

 faces of the crystal. 



557. Although the earth may be regarded as originally a crystal, 

 that consists of level surfaces, edges, and angles, wide fissures may 

 still have originated between its laminae, such as we see in large 

 crystals of felspar. These fissures or gaps are the primary valleys. 



558.' There must be, therefore, valleys or parallel valleys, which 

 probably extend for hundreds of miles, and are many miles deep 

 longitudinal valleys. 



559. The laminae of the earth had without doubt transverse fis- 

 sures, which have been called hidden passages. These transverse 

 fissures are the transverse valleys, which are consequently less long 

 and deep. 



560. The mountains originate of themselves. They do not prop- 

 erly originate, but valleys only originate, and the ridges of the crys- 

 tal laminae afford the mountains. The mountains have not been 

 originally upheaved above the surface of the earth, nor the valleys 

 depressed. A valley, which is several miles broad, must originally 

 have been several miles deep, and the mountain wall consequently 

 several miles high. The earth at its origin was a cloven and jagged 

 polyhedron, a polyhedric star, such as the moon is still. 



561. The mountains are not, therefore, large crystals, which 

 crystallized above the surface of the earth. They are only crystal 

 laminae, and may be as irregular as possible in form, for they are 

 ruptured crystals. 



The constituent forms of the earth are consequently arranged in 

 laminse. What in the crystal is called the cleavage of the laminae, 

 is in the earth stratification. The strike of the strata combined with 

 their dip determines the crystal nucleus of the earth. Physiophilo- 

 sophy. 



OKEN. 



