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THEIR LIFE AND AFFINITY. 931 
of surface with other forms, approaches more nearly the spherical form, 
as that which is perfectly compact, thoroughly symmetrical, and there- 
fore fundamentally organic. The icosahedron, for instance, approaches 
the spherical form more nearly than the octahedron does; it is also 
important to observe that the most precious crystals, and especially the 
diamond, (which being pure carbon, is therefore, from its composition, 
most closely allied to the organized bodies,) are those wherein we ob- 
serve the most compact crystallization, at least that which approaches 
most nearly to the sphere and is therefore in nowise columnar ; where- 
fore the diamond, particularly on account of its power of refraction, 
has a closer resemblance to a solid drop of water*. This view, by 
showing how crystallization may be examined, from the three-sided 
pyramid and the cube upwards to the most many-sided forms, or those 
which approach nearest to the sphere, may place the theory of crystal- 
lization on a more natural and therefore a more philosophical basis. 
On the other hand we must also take into consideration the copies, or 
rather the prototypes, of the form of really organized bodies which 
occur in the solidification of the fluid. It is by no means without a 
cause, nor to be regarded as a mere lusus nature, (a very unmeaning 
expression,) that pure water in its crystallization assumes forms which 
correspond most closely with those of inferior organizations: thus the 
flakes of snow represent the forms of Polypi, Asteriz, and Meduse ; 
we find in the ice on windows the forms of many vegetable sub- 
stances, leaves, stems, flowers; the earth too and some metallic sub- 
stances present, when melted or united with water, similar types, in 
which we see the condition under which Dendrites and the manifold 
forms of native ores originate. In all this the moving creating life of 
the original fluid cannot pass unnoticed, and becomes still more 
evident if we examine the history of the origin of organized bodies, 
in which the fluid appears as the basis both of animal and ve- 
getable life; and thus the very germ of individual organisms is inti- 
mately connected with the life of the planet. Indeed this is partly true 
of the solid parts of the earth; for it is easy to show, even in the fossil 
kingdom, a transition partly to animal and partly to vegetable life ; so 
much so, that a philosophical inquirer, Henry Steffens+, has been led, 
from a comparison of several facts, to establish two very probable pro- 
positions relating to this subject : 
“1. In the whole silicious series (of fossils),—-which constitutes the 
chief mass in the oldest and principal mountains of our earth, which goes 
through all periods, and in its bituminous substances exhibits the re- 
mains of an extinct vegetation, yet connected as a living member with 
the whole existing vegetation by the marsh-turf,—carbon and hydrogen 
(the essential elements of the vegetable kingdom) are the principal 
* On the formation of the water-drop, seep. 229. 
+ See Beitrage xur Naturgeschichte der Erde: pp. 58 and 69. Freyberg, 1801. 
RZ 
