Mineral Causes. 125 



repelling) until eventually a magnetised bunch of ice 

 particles is formed. 



It will now be obvious that the cause of the 

 mimicry of tree growth in the mineral kingdom is 

 strikingly suggestive of the cause of genuine tree 

 growth in the vegetal kingdom, a coincidence also 

 noticed by Tyndall, in his lecture on " Crystalline 

 and Molecular Forces." Whether there is more in 

 the phenomenon than a coincidence remains to be 

 seen. 



Section 6. Life: 



The term "life" has not hitherto been associated 

 with minerals, yet if a frost-fern, a lead tree, or a 

 snow-shrub grows, there can be no fundamental 

 distinction, for all life at bottom is merely motion. 

 The processes of growing may differ, but the laws are 

 the same. This admission, however, would dispel 

 one of the great mysteries of existence, the " Origin 

 of Life." 



The solution of this problem has always been the 

 ultima thule of science, and its mystery, the Zion of 

 all human superstition. Its insolubility is responsible 

 for heaven as well as for hell, and is even god-father 

 to the devil. Naturally enough its non-discovery is a 

 standing reproach to science and the highest human 

 intelligence, although a godsend to bigotry, priest- 

 craft and cant. 



That the origin of life has remained an enigma 

 until the present clay, is as much owing to the 



