226 CHEMICAL SOLUTION. 



sited on different parts of the great 

 floor." 



We should observe many thousand hot springs, 

 issuing from the sides of mountains, and from the 

 bottom of the sea, charged with enormous quan- 

 tities of earthy and metallic bodies in solution ; 

 which are precipitated as they cool down, form- 

 ing new strata of rocks and earthy deposits. 



Could we look through the earth as through a 

 great crystal, and behold all its molecular mo- 

 tions and changes, as we do the formation of 

 a salt by the aid of an oxy-hydrogen micros- 

 cope, we should be transported with admiration 

 of a scene at once so grand, simple, and beautiful. 

 The exquisite mechanism by which crystals are 

 generated, is carried on by the regular arrange- 

 ment of atoms in series and aggregates, the forms 

 of which are determined by the most exact ma- 

 thematical laws, by the adjustment of atoms by 

 far too small to be discerned with the most 

 powerful microscope. During the crystallization 

 of a drop of muriate of ammonia, magnified three 

 million times, and reflected on a large white 

 ground, many thousand small crystals are seen 

 shooting in every direction as the solution eva- 

 porates, which coalesce and form one solid 

 crystal. Still more admirable is the process of 

 organization by which the particles of dead 

 matter are converted into plants and animals, 

 endowed with irritability, sensibility, and the 

 power of attracting nourishment for their sup- 



