IN SIMPLE MINERALS. 429 



fortuitously have settled into any of those under which it 

 actually appears. Now, on this hypothesis, we ought to 

 find all kinds of substances presented occasionally under 

 an infinite number of external forms, and combined in end- 

 less varieties "of indefinite proportions ; but observation has 

 shown that crystaUine mineral bodies occur under a fixed 

 and limited number of external forms called secondary, 

 and that these are constructed on a series of more simple 

 primary forms, which are demonstrable by cleavage and 

 mechanical division, without chemical analysis ; the inte- 

 grant molecules* of these primary forms of crystals are 

 usually compound bodies, made up of an ulterior series of 

 constituent molecules, i. e. molecules of the first substances 

 obtained by chemical analysis ; and these in many cases are 

 also compound bodies, made up of the elementary molecules, 

 or final indivisible atoms,f of which the ultimate particles of 

 matter are probably composed.^ 



* Ce que j'ai dit de la forme deviendra encore plus evident, si, en pene- 

 trant dans le mecanisme inline de la structure, on congoit tous ces cristaux 

 comme des assemblages de molecules integrantcs parfaitement sembiables 

 par leurs formes, et subordonnees, k un arrangement regulier. Ainsi, au 

 lieu qu'une etude superficielle des cristaux n'y laissail voir que des singula- 

 rites de la nature, une etude approfondie nous conduit &. cette consequence 

 que le meme Dieu dont la puissance et la sagesse ont soumis la course des 

 astres a, des lois qui ne se dementent jamais, en a aussi etabli auxquelles ont 

 obei avec la ra6me fidelite les molecules qui se sont reunies donner naissance 

 aux corps caches dans les retraites du globe que nous habitons. Hauy, Ta- 

 bleau comparatif des Resultats de la Cristallographie et de V Analyse Chi- 

 mique. P. xvii. 



t "We seem to be justified in concluding, that a limit is to be assigned 

 to the divisibility of matter, and consequently that we must suppose the ex- 

 istence of certain ultimate particles, stamped, as Newton conjectured, in the 

 beginning of time by the hands of the Almighty with permanent characters, 

 and retaining the exact size and figure, no less than the other more subtle 

 qualities and relations which were given to them at the first moment oftheir 

 creation. 



" The particles of the several substances existing in nature may thus de- 

 serve to be regarded as the alphabet, composing the great volume which re- 

 cords the wisdom and goodness of the Creator." 



Daubney^s Atomic Theory, p. 107. 



\ We may once for all illustrate the combinations of exact and methodical 



