'296 On the Cri/siallinc Sfrucfiire of [he [Apurc 



furnace, on the inotal-fillccl cauUIrDiis of an iron fouudary, or on the 

 water in the boilers of a steam-engine. 



Tlie farther we advance, in our knowledge of the wonders of creation, 

 the more reason do we find to adore (he infinite power of that great, 

 and glorious Being, to whom all is due : a power, of which we may form 

 some slight idea, from (he toil and labour required on our parts, to inves- 

 tigate those laNYs by which it works, when applied to the government 

 of the natural workl. LiUle cause is there fur intellectual pride, when 

 •we reflect that the profoundest investigalions, and the most refined 

 systems of analysis adopted by ma(hema(icians, the most extensive 

 observations of the natural philosopher, reaching almost literally from 

 pole to pole, or (he most laborious researches of tlie chemist, all and 

 each, are only, as it were, so many lines by which we are enabled to 

 sound the depths of the power and wisdom of that God, who, by the 

 simple expre&siun of his will, called all (hose laws, as w-ell as the matter 

 on which they operate, into exis(ence. The progress of discovery proves 

 to us how little we have known of those depths ; and gives to (he follow- 

 ing remarks of one, who, perhaps, if any human being could be entitled 

 to glory in his intellect, to him (he right would be conced -d, a beauty 

 and force, which make it one of (he mo-^t s(riking on record. — " I deem 

 myself," says Sir Isac Newton, to whom I refer, " to be like a litde 

 child playing on the seashore — the waves every now and then washing 

 to my feet a smoother or a prettier pebble, while the great ocean of 

 tru(h is unexplored before me." — 1 now return to the consideration of 

 the classes which still remain. 



(6) Since my a(tention was directed to collecting facts for (his en- 

 quiry, I have been much interested by observing the regular forms, 

 into which the fine mud, forming the bot(oms of tanks and pools, di- 

 vides itself, after the evaporation of the surface water. Whenever 

 the surface of the mud is exposed to the heat of ihe sun, the outlines 

 of the figures begin to develope themselves, and as the evaporalion of 

 the water combined wiih the mud proceeds, these outlines gradually 

 become more and more distinct, till at length complete separation takes 

 place, and the whole mass becomes divided into columnar pi isms, of 

 various sizes, and bounded by different regular figures — sometimes 

 the bases are triangular, sometimes quadrangular, but the most ge- 

 nerally prevalent form.s are pentagons and hexagons. Both the sides 

 and angles of the different prisms vary in these dimensions, as indeed 

 might he expected when we consider how much the aflUnity of crystalli- 

 zation must be limited by the nature of the mud, and also by local cir- 

 cumstances, some portion being more freely exposed to the action of 



