The calcite cuts it
through at every charge. Look here,--and here! The loveliest
crystal in the whole group is hewn fairly into two pieces.
ISABEL. Oh, dear; but is the calcite harder than the crystal then?
L. No, softer. Very much softer.
MARY. But then, how can it possibly cut the crystal?
L. It did not really cut it, though it passes through it. The two
were formed together, as I told you but no one knows how. Still,
it is strange that this hard quartz has in all cases a good-
natured way with it, of yielding to everything else. All sorts of
soft things make nests for themselves in it; and it never makes a
nest for itself in anything. It has all the rough outside work;
and every sort of cowardly and weak mineral can shelter itself
within it. Look; these are hexagonal plates of mica; if they were
outside of this crystal they would break, like burnt paper; but
they are inside of it,--nothing can hurt them,--the crystal has
taken them into its very heart, keeping all their delicate edges
as sharp as if they were under water, instead of bathed in rock.
Here is a piece of branched silver: you can bend it with a touch
of your finger, but the stamp of its every fiber is on the rock in
which it lay, as if the quartz had been as soft as wool.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112