30 
C. L. Herrick 
blende. What remains develops certain harmonies, and quartz 
envelops the preformed elements filling the interspaces. The 
molecular^’ energies of each of these ingredients combine to 
form most resistant and permanent elements. Of course there 
is constant reaction. There is tension between the elements; 
there is chemical, thermal, electrical interaction, and many others 
of which we know nothing, and it is impossible to deny that the 
quartz is in constant energic communication with elements in 
Sirius. This ^^sociah’ relation is no bar to a high degree of 
individualization. 
In the crystal there is the power of assimilation and repro- 
duction. New little crystals of perfect form are formed as parts 
or adherents of larger ones. There is no particular reason for 
denying that this tendency, however weak and limited to special 
conditions, is analogous to the reproductive tendency of animate 
beings. A species of mineral, it is insisted, differs from a species 
of animal in that the individuals forming a species of mineral 
arise freely, independently of any previous individual. Thus our 
quartz grains arise in the magma independently of any other 
quartz grains, while an individual of a species of animal cannot 
arise independently of some pre-existing animal of the same species. 
To this it may be replied that it is yet unproven that spontaneous 
generation must not be called in to account for the origin of 
life (if not, there is a break in evolution) and also that the all- 
important thing in both cases is that there shall be a certain 
assemblage of properly adjusted energic forms in coadaptation: — 
in the undifferentiated magma of the granite on one hand and 
in the germinal elements or buds of the animate species on the 
other. Inasmuch as it is demonstrable that the presence of a 
crystal is a determinant to the formation of others in the magma, 
it is only necessary to suppose that in the more complex com- 
position of animate individuals this (at first adventitious) aid 
becomes finally a prerequisite. Thus the difference between 
the origin of new individuals in the two kingdoms reduces to a 
minimum. 
Now, as we saw, the possibility of variation in the manner of 
impingement, where two forces interact, varies between identity and 
opposition. But it is in accordance with physical analogy that, to 
our senses at least, there should be “critical angles” or “genetic 
modes.” In passing from identity to opposition, those stages of 
