Form and Color in Nature. 239 



revolving, condensing, dividing, as you have heretofore heard 

 described by other lecturers. The first form which emerges 

 is the sphere or globe, one of the " Heavenly bodies," say 

 the Sun, or our Earth. 



We may suppose the various chemical constituents act- 

 ing and reacting upon one another, combining, disintegrat- 

 ing, recombining ; affected now by heat, now by electricity, 

 now by gravitation, now by chemical attraction ; at one time 

 by these several forces in co-operation, at another in conflict 



Approaching nearer to the present, we find that this earth 

 of ours has taken a definite shape, with an extended solid 

 crust, resting upon an interior in regard to the condition of 

 which we can only speculate, and holding in the depressions 

 upon its surface vast expanses of liquid. 



The result of the conflict of the various forces operating 

 through it has been to leave most of it in what may be 

 called an amorphous condition. But while this is so, on the 

 other hand we find on every side the phenomenon of crys- 

 tallization ; we find that as it worked heretofore, it still 

 works in a multitude of ways, but that ever the same sub- 

 stance obeys the same imperious command. And how won- 

 drous, how beautiful is the result ! Who has not looked 

 curiously into the treasures of the snow ? Many, I fear 

 but I hope that none who are here are ignorant of them. 

 Examine the fleecy stranger upon your sleeve, and if he has 

 fallen gently he will reveal a marvelous beauty. Look 

 upon your window-pane and see forests of luxuriant palms 

 and ferns, the very tropics in ice. Glance even at the flag- 

 stones at your feet, and find the same delicate tracery. 

 Does this insensate matter take this form for any other 

 reason than because so help it God it can do no other- 

 wise ? And so with the diamond and the chrysolite, and 

 the emerald and the malachite, and hundreds and hundreds 

 of other crystals which you dig from the earth, or which 

 form themselves in the chemist's laboratory, form them- 

 selves not as he wills, but as they will. Form and color both 

 are here ! Such form and such color ! 



We stand at the parting of the ways : on the one side 

 " mere dead matter, as people are wont to say ; on the 

 other " life." For some inexplicable reason, it is easier for 

 many to understand, or to think that they understand, that 

 which takes place in the inorganic world, than that which 

 takes place in the organic world, but why, I can not compre- 

 hend. It is all a mystery. We see an order of events, and 



