MARY. But is not that wholly wonderful? How is it that one never
sees it spoken of in books?
L. The scientific men are all busy in determining the constant
laws under which the struggle takes place; these indefinite humors
of the elements are of no interest to them. And unscientific
people rarely give themselves the trouble of thinking at all, when
they look at stones. Not that it is of much use to think; the more
one thinks, the more one is puzzled.
MARY. Surely it is more wonderful than anything in botany?
L. Everything has its own wonders; but, given the nature of the
plant, it is easier to understand what a flower will do, and why
it does it, than, given anything we as yet know of stone-nature,
to understand what a crystal will do, and why it does it. You at
once admit a kind of volition and choice, in the flower; but we
are not accustomed to attribute anything of the kind to the
crystal. Yet there is, in reality, more likeness to some
conditions of human feeling among stones than among plants. There
is a far greater difference between kindly-tempered and ill-
tempered crystals of the same mineral, than between any two
specimens of the same flower: and the friendships and wars of
crystals depend more definitely and curiously on their varieties
of disposition, than any associations of flowers.
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