Formal Lecture in Schoolroom, after some practical examination of
minerals.
L. We have seen enough, children, though very little of what might
be seen if we had more time, of mineral structures produced by
visible opposition, or contest among elements; structures of which
the variety, however great, need not surprise us: for we quarrel,
ourselves, for many and slight causes,--much more, one should
think, may crystals, who can only feel the antagonism, not argue
about it. But there is a yet more singular mimicry of our human
ways in the varieties of form which appear owing to no
antagonistic force; but merely to the variable humor and caprice
of the crystals themselves: and I have asked you all to come into
the schoolroom to-day, because, of course, this is a part of the
crystal mind which must be peculiarly interesting to a feminine
audience. (Great symptoms of disapproval on the part of said
audience.) Now, you need not pretend that it will not interest
you; why should it not? It is true that we men are never
capricious; but that only makes us the more dull and disagreeable.
You, who are crystalline in brightness, as well as in caprice,
charm infinitely, by infinitude of change. (Audible murmurs of
"Worse and worse!" "As if we could be got over that way!" Etc. The
LECTURER, however, observing the expression of the features to be
more complacent, proceeds.) And the most curious mimicry, if not
of your changes of fashion, at least of your various modes (in
healthy periods) of national costume, takes place among the
crystals of different countries. With a little experience, it is
quite possible to say at a glance, in what districts certain
crystals have been found; and although, if we had knowledge
extended and accurate enough, we might of course ascertain the
laws and circumstances which have necessarily produced the form
peculiar to each locality, this would be just as true of the
fancies of the human mind. If we could know the exact
circumstances which affect it, we could foretell what now seems to
us only caprice of thought, as well as what now seems to us only
caprice of crystal: nay, so far as our knowledge reaches, it is on
the whole easier to find some reason why the peasant girls of
Berne should wear their caps in the shape of butterflies; and the
peasant girls of Munich theirs in the shape of shells, than to say
why the rock-crystals of Dauphine should all have their summits of
the shape of lip-pieces of flageolets, while those of St. Gothard
are symmetrical, or why the fluor of Chamouni is rose-colored, and
in octahedrons, while the fluor of Weardale is green, and in
cubes. Still farther removed is the hope, at present, of
accounting for minor differences in modes of grouping and
construction. Take, for instance, the caprices of this single
mineral, quart;--variations upon a single theme. It has many
forms; but see what it will make out of this ONE, the six-sided
prism. For shortness' sake, I shall call the body of the prism its
"column," and the pyramid at the extremities its "cap." Now, here,
first you have a straight column as long and thin as a stalk of
asparagus, with two little caps at the ends; and here you have a
short thick column, as solid as a haystack, with two fat caps at
the ends; and here you have two caps fastened together, and no
column at all between them! Then here is a crystal with its column
fat in the middle, and tapering to a little cap; and here is one
stalked like a mushroom, with a huge cap put on the top of a
slender column! Then here is a column built wholly out of little
caps, with a large smooth cap at the top. And here is a column
built of columns and caps; the caps all truncated about half-way
to their points. And in both these last, the little crystals are
set anyhow, and build the large one in a disorderly way; but here
is a crystal made of columns and truncated caps, set in regular
terraces all the way up.
MARY. But are not these groups of crystals, rather than one
crystal?