Of old, naturalists made more frequent and much stronger affirmations than they do to-day. Confidence in self is the property of youth; maturity learns to doubt, which is the beginning of wisdom, provided that it does not remain content, but rather compels man to seek with increased ardor the truth which seems to fly from him. The ancients placed between the animal and the vegetable limits which in reality did not exist. Up to the present time limits of the same nature have been set between organic and inorganic life. But in proportion as we examine minerals we shall see the differences disappear and the resemblances increase. Man is born of parents; the whole animal and vegetable worlds are perpetuated in obedience to the laws of reproduction, each after his own kind. It was this absolute identity between parent and offspring that separated distinctly the other kingdoms from the mineral; but recently a scientist has discovered that the same fixed law is established in this department of life also. M. Gernez prepared a solution consisting of octahedral borax in five equivalents of water, and rhomboidal borax in ten equivalents of water. The two bodies, excepting their proportion of water, had the same chemical composition. The liquid, treated with suitable precaution, remained perfectly limpid, and he could place in it fragments of all imaginable substances, without causing it to give rise to any remarkable phenomena. But when even an infinitely small crystal of octahedral borax was dropped into it, the temperature rose, and in a few minutes all the octahedral borax contained in the solution took the crystalline form. Meanwhile, the rhomboidal borax was held in solution, and in order to crystallize it in its turn, there was needed only the contact of a rhomboidal crystal.
The mineral was evidently born of a parent; it was identical with this parent; its symmetry was the same under the same circumstances. Similar results from numerous experiments with other substances were obtained.
… Under the influence of agents whose masters we are, molecules group themselves, following fixed laws, and arrange themselves in their relative positions. Just as soldiers off drill, and scattered throughout the camp, when the order of the commander is given, obey and fall into line, so do molecules obey the forces in command over them.
Stranger still, this crystal perfectly formed, seems sometimes to have a conception of an ideal of beauty, a perfect symmetry, the ellipsoid of the cubic system, which is a sphere; it seeks it, tries to reach it, and if it can not be attained, it falls to acting a part. It disguises itself, just as is sometimes done among men, and strives to appear the being it is not. The crystal, no more than the man, will ever assume a place in a lower rank; each seeks to appear better than he is. To attain its object the crystal will unite itself with the other crystals of the same kind; then these will gather into groups. As they can not modify their own angles they will crowd one against another. Let it cost what it may, if it is a possible thing they will have their imperfections removed, and will improve their individual appearance, and if any measure of success is attained, the little crystals will enjoy in silence their usurped glory.
If science, with the apparent rigidity of her measures, weights and figures holds for the scholar oftentimes disagreeable surprises, she sometimes cheers him by rewards full of a strange grandeur. Azote, or nitrogen in its free state, constitutes more than three fourths of the volume of the atmosphere, and is in its appearance the type of inertia. Its presence seems to have no other rôle than to reduce the over-exciting action of the oxygen upon our organs of respiration. In order to cause it to enter into combination with other substances, it is necessary to have recourse to the most energetic forces. Among these in nature only one, electricity, lightning, is able to accomplish this result. But the union once effected, the gas is capable of undergoing a thousand variations. As passive as it was while free, so active does it become after entering into any combination. As it is found in the constitution of all animal and vegetable life, we find that without the storm-cloud no organic life could exist. The origin of all creatures is to be found in a clap of thunder.
Such examples as these show that imagination as well as science derives great profit from the intimate study of the phenomena presented by minerals. One commences their study by measuring, by weighing, by carefully analyzing; one gathers now and then slowly a little knowledge; then suddenly this apparently barren field disappears to give place to large horizons, to vast generalizations of majestic simplicity, resting upon the solid foundation of experimentation. Let us not underestimate the rôle of the imagination in scientific researches. It gives to the scholar persistence in his daily toil; it is his hope at the moment he begins an undertaking, his guide during the work, and his recompense when he has finished. What a charm in the frequent discoveries of analogies between the highest orders of beings and those which occupy the lowest rounds in the ladder of perfection!
Similarity is to be observed also in the growth of individuals in the different kingdoms. One sees at first crystal skeletons, then gradually the crystals developing into perfection. Neither the chemist with all his delicate tests, nor the physician armed with his accurate instruments can decipher the feeblest trace of heterogeneity; the child grown has become a man; the mineral fully developed has reached also its age of virility.
Minerals may be hindered in their development, may become irregular, imperfect, deformed; upon certain of their angles new facets may appear, in other parts facets may slowly become obliterated. As soon as the obstacle causing the trouble is removed the wounds will heal over, perhaps leaving their scars, and the crystals will pursue their normal course. Sometimes an accidental circumstance, as that of too ardent a sun, or a season too wet, will cause a fissure, and a malady commences. Oxydation or hydration is produced, and the mineral begins to disintegrate; finally, as a result of the accident, the last particles are lost to sight. We think it has been destroyed. But it is dead; it has died just as a man dies. Its elements are just as imperishable as are those of man’s body, which, when it is laid away in the grave are not annihilated, but, as they are resolved, enter again into new forms in the great torrent of life. Their atoms are immutable, what they have been, they are, and will be to all eternity; eternally young, eternally the same, moving without rest, unmindful of time or of combinations. The ancient symbol of the serpent with his tail in his mouth well represents the cycle of life. Periods succeed periods.
The day ends in twilight and the night is followed by a new dawn. All limits are effaced. The stone, the flower, the animal intermingle their natures. With this thought in mind all life seems like a great net-work, whose meshes are interlaced in countless ways, before which the seeker after truth stands with ardent soul. But at the moment he thinks to grasp the solution of the absorbing problem, he is only made more deeply aware of his own weakness. And looking forward over the great expanse stretching out before him to infinity, he experiences only one sentiment, that of admiration; and his desire ever increases to learn still, and to learn always.