
THE LILIES OF THE FIELDS, ETC. 305 
Hannover, the interior of the eye is as if paved with very 
minute hexagonal blocks, put closely side by side. So also 
the plates covering many aquatic animals, particularly the 
body of many fossil crinoids, excellent figures of which may 
be found in the geological reports of the great American 
paleontologist, James Hall, of Albany. I add Fig. 59. 
the figure of one plate from Archwocidaris 
Agassizi. (Fig. 59.) i 
It is evident from the few examples selected 
from among thousands, that the regular hexago- 
nal form, or the division of the circle into three 
or six equal parts is a grand natural fact, alike . 
manifest in the inorganic and organie world; this same fact 
is the glory and beauty of the lilies of the field, the lilies of 
the rocks, and the lilies of the sky. 
So general a fact must be the consequence of a general 
Jaw, and although this law may be deeply hidden in the 
mysteries of the vegetable and animal life exhibiting these 
forms, it may be more accessible in the lilies of inorganic, 
or so called inanimate nature. The question as to the cause 
of the form of the lily of the field may be premature, but 
may we not ask physical science for the cause of the form 
of the crystals of the rocks and of the sky? Or, to make 
the question still more precise, may we not ask the physi- 
cist, chemist and mineralogist— who each and every one are 
Investigating these subjects— for the explanation of the won- 
derful form of the snow-crystal? That there is a cause for 
this form is manifest to every one who even merely glances 
at a few snow-crystals occasionally caught on our clothing 
on à winter's day; but as yet science has not been able to 
unravel the mysterious origin of the crystalline forms which 
adorn every nook and corner in the material world, and 
Which we see forming under our very eyes in the laboratory 
of the chemist. 
n my work called “Atomechanics, or Chemistry a Me- 
chanics of the Panatoms,” published in 1867, and distributed 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 39 

