CRYSTALLINE ANALOGIES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2603, 12 May 1877, Page 4

CRYSTALLINE ANALOGIES.

Exclusive of animal decay, we can hardly arrive'at a more absolute type of impurity than the mud or slime of a damp oveftrodden path in the outskirts of a

manufacturing town. . . . That slime we_sfoall find in most cases composed of clay (or brick dust, which is burnt clay), mixed with soot, a little sand, aud water. All these elements are at helpless war with each other, and destroy, reciprocally, each other's nature and* power —competing and fighting for place at every tread of your foot—sand squeezing out clay, and clay squeezing out water, and soot meddling everywhere and defiling the whole. Let us suppose that this ounce of ■mud is kept in perfect rest, and that its elements gather together like to like, so that their atoms mayiget into the closest relations possible,,-Let the clay begin., Ridding itself of all foreign substances, it; gradually becomes a white earth, already very- beautiful, and fit, with help of congealing fire, to be made into finest porcelain, arid painted on, and to be kept in kings' palaces. But such artificial consistence is not its best. Leave it still quiet, to follow its own instinct of unity ; it becomes not only white, but clear; not ouly clear, but hard ; and so set that it can deal on.the light in.a wonderful way, and gather out of ittheloYeliest blue rays, only depressing the rest. We call it then a sapphire. Such beings the consummation of the clay, we then give similar permission of quiet to the sand. It-also becomes first a white earth ; • thenMt grows clear and hard, and at last arranges itself in mysterious and infinitely fine parallel lines, which have the power of reflecting not merely the blue rays,, but the blue, green, purple, and red rays, in the greatest beauty in which they can be seen through any hard material whatever. We call it then opal. In next order, the soot sets to work. It cannot make itself white at first, but, instead of being discouraged, tries harder and harder, and at last comes out clear, the hardest thing in the world ; and for the blackness it had, obtains in exchange the power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at once, in the most vivid blaze that any solid thing can emit. We call it then a diamond. Last of all, the watex purifies or wastes itself, contented enough if it only reaches the form ofadewdrop, But if we persist in its proceeding to a more perfect consistence, it crystallises into the shape of :a :: star. So,. for the ounce of slime we "had at first, we have a sapphire, an opal, a diamond set in the*midst of a star of snow." We see, then, the seeming trouble—the degradations of the elements of earth .must passively wait the. appointed time of their restoration. But if there be in us a nobler life than in those strangely moving atoms —if; indeed, there is an. eternal difference between the ; fire which inhabits them, and that which' animates us, it must be shown by each of- us ia his appointed place—not merely in:the pretence, but in the activity of-pur hope; not merely by pur desire, but by our labour for the timewhen the dust pf the generations of men; shall be conformed for foundations of the gates of the city of God.—Ruskin oh Crystals. . . .: ;