88 THE MORPHOLOGY 



in crystals, one and the same kind of crystal may appear 

 as a long needle, a little flat plate or as a body equally 

 extended in all directions. The crystallized oxalate of 

 lime, occurring so frequently in plants, has in all its forms 

 a square surface as its constant basis, upon which a square 

 column is built. When this is very short, a little quadran- 

 gular plate is the result, if higher, it gradually approaches 

 the cube ; becoming taller, it passes up beyond this, and 

 at last appears as a long slender needle, almost filiform ; 

 but the shape of the crystal, the essential form, remains 

 ever the same, a square column ; just as we may recognise 

 the same human shape, though mankind are short and 

 stout, or tall and slender. The conclusion which may now 

 be drawn from this is, that we can deduce no characters 

 from the general conception of a body, wherewith to distin- 

 guish and classify it. Glorious systems may, indeed, be 

 thought out on paper in the study, but these have no 

 meaning or importance in the actual world. Thus, as we 

 enter upon these things, we must rather modestly inquire 

 whether Nature is inclined to display her mysteries to 

 us ; whether she will, in this or that individual instance 

 make manifest what characters are essential in their shape ; 

 in a word, what basis she will afford us for the erection of 

 our system. 



In reference to this point, our science stands at very 

 different degrees of completion in the different classes of 

 natural bodies, in all, however, yet far distant from its 

 object. This object is, namely, to be able to explain all 

 shapes by the regular action of force in nature, and this is 

 not at present possible in one single case. The preparatory 

 stages, however, by which we are to attain to this object, 

 consist in the first place, in the accurate knowledge and 

 arrangement of different shapes according to their inner 



