(n) 225 



tions. This, however, is not the scientific idea, nor do 

 I think your good sense will accept it as a likely one. 

 The scientific idea is that the molecules act upon each 

 other without the intervention of slave labor j that they 

 attract each other and repel each other at certain 

 definite points, and in certain definite directions j and 

 that the pyramidal form is the result of this play of at- 

 traction and repulsion. While, then, the blocks of 

 Egypt were laid down by a power external to them- 

 selves, these molecular blocks of salt are self-posited, 

 being fixed in their places by the forces with which they 

 act upon each other. 



I take common salt as an illustration, because it is so 

 familiar to us all ; but almost any other substance would 

 answer my purpose equally well. In fact, throughout 

 inorganic nature, we have this formative power, as 

 Fichte would call it this structural energy ready to 

 come into play, and build the ultimate particles of mat- 

 ter into definite shapes. It is present everywhere. The 

 ice of our winters and of our polar regions is its hand- 

 work, and so equally are the quartz, feldspar, and mica 

 of our rocks. Our chalk-beds are for the most part 

 composed- of minute shells, which are also the product 

 of structural energy ; but behind the shell, as a whole, 

 lies the result of another and more subtle formative act. 

 These shells are built up of little crystals of calc-spar, 

 and to form these the structural force had to deal with 

 the intangible molecules of carbonate of lime. This ten- 

 dency on the part of matter to organize itself, to grow 

 into shape, to assume definite forms in obedience to the 

 definite action of force, is, as I have said, all-pervading. 

 It is in the ground on which you tread, in the water you 

 drink, in the air you breathe. Incipient life, in fact, 



