391 
w * P r .°, duc P, an amorphous carbonate by precipitation, 
we lose a considerable portion of the carbonic acid, and obtain a 
mixture of hydrate and carbonate. Now, before we can explain 
ne formation of this magnesite,, we must show not only how 
ie carbonate of magnesia was precipitated in an absolutely 
pure state, but how it was thrown down in a precipitate of this 
remarkable constitution. The natural compounds of boron 
01 ax, boiacic acid, and borate of lime, are another example of 
an element of comparatively rare occurrence, yet which is found 
in great quantities in particular places. In Tuscany, the steam 
Irom certain suffoni is impregnated with boracic acid, which 
collects in the water, through which the steam forces its way 
into the air ; in South America, borate of lime is found in beds 
in rounded masses, which are dug up like potatoes. In some 
parts of California or Nevada, in addition to these deposits of 
301 ate o lime, there are also found lakes, the water of which 
is so strongly impregnated with borax that crystals of it are 
ound in the mud at the bottom ; and similar lakes in the North 
ot India yield the tincal of commerce. 
28. There has been much speculation as to the probable deri- 
vation of these various deposits from boracic acid from suffoni, 
but no one has hazarded an explanation why this element should 
be thus abundant in rare spots on the globe, and almost un- 
known elsewhere. 
~9. It would be easy to multiply instances of this unknown 
analytical power in nature, which has thus balanced the teudency 
winch we see in the processes going on around us, to mix all 
nngs into one even mass; but enough has been brought forward 
to show that a balance of forces has existed and still exists, 
that it is incomparably easier to conceive as the result of design, 
than of blind chance. The study of geology, and the light 
it throws upon the formative processes that have been at work 
upon the earth, thus show us that the compensative power which 
causes the waste and destruction of the animal to be the life 
and growth of the vegetable, and the vegetable to be the sus- 
tamer of the animal, has been at work from the earliest ages, 
ever unravelling the seemingly tangled skein of counteracting 
forces, and ever reproducing from the waste and destruction of 
the earth s crust a fresh, yet ever-varied, repetition of forms of 
mattei. W e can, it is true, trace in some measure the action 
° . these forces; but there are wide gaps in our knowledge even 
o the details of those processes the operation of which we 
know most of; and these processes of which we know anything 
