The Crown of Wild Olive
mineralogically) always into something else,--though that's my fault
more than yours; but I must go straight on now. You have got a distinct
notion, I hope, of leaf-crystals; and you see the sort of look they
have: you can easily remember that 'folium' is Latin for a leaf, and
that the separate flakes of mica, or any other such stones, are called
'folia;' but, because mica is the most characteristic of these stones,
other things that are like it in structure are called 'micas;' thus we
have Uran-mica, which is the green leaf I showed you; and Copper-mica,
which is another like it, made chiefly of copper; and this foliated iron
is called 'micaceous iron.' You have then these two great orders,
Needle-crystals, made (probably) of grains in rows; and Leaf-crystals,
made (probably) of needles interwoven; now, lastly, there are crystals
of a third order, in heaps, or knots, or masses, which may be made,
either of leaves laid one upon another, or of needles bound like Roman
fasces; and mica itself, when it is well crystallised, puts itself into
such masses, as if to show us how others are made. Here is a brown
six-sided crystal, quite as beautifully chiselled at the sides as any
castle tower; but you see it is entirely built of folia of mica, one
laid above another, which break away the moment I touch the edge with my
knife. Now, here is another hexagonal tower, of just the same size and
colour, which I want you to compare with the mica carefully; but as I
cannot wait for you to do it just now, I must tell you quickly what main
differences to look for. First, you will feel it is far heavier than the
mica. Then, though its surface looks quite micaceous in the folia of it,
when you try them with the knife, you will find you cannot break them
away----
KATHLEEN. May I try?
L. Yes, you mistrusting Katie. Here's my strong knife for you.
(_Experimental pause._ KATHLEEN, _doing her best._) You'll have that
knife shutting on your finger presently, Kate; and I don't know a girl
who would like less to have her hand tied up for a week.
KATHLEEN (_who also does not like to be beaten--giving up the knife
despondently_). What _can_ the nasty hard thing be?
L. It is nothing but indurated clay, Kate: very hard set certainly, yet
not so hard as it might be. If it were thoroughly well crystallised, you
would see none of those micaceous fractures; and the stone would be
quite red and clear, all through.
KATHLEEN. Oh, cannot you show us one?
L. Egypt can, if you ask her; she has a beautiful one in the clasp of
her favourite bracelet.
KATHLEEN. Why, that's a ruby!
L. Well, so is that thing you've been scratching at.
KATHLEEN. My goodness!
(_Takes up the stone again, very delicately; and drops it.
General consternation._)
L. Never mind, Katie; you might drop it from the top of the house, and
do it no harm. But though you really are a very good girl, and as
good-natured as anybody can possibly be, remember, you have your faults,
like other people; and, if I were you, the next time I wanted to assert
anything energetically, I would assert it by 'my badness,' not 'my
goodness.'
KATHLEEN. Ah, now, it's too bad of you!
L. Well, then, I'll invoke, on occasion, my 'too-badness.' But you may
as well pick up the ruby, now you have dropped it; and look carefully at
the beautiful hexagonal lines which gleam on its surface; and here is a
pretty white sapphire (essentially the same stone as the ruby), in which
you will see the same lovely structure, like the threads of the finest
white cobweb. I do not know what is the exact method of a ruby's
construction; but you see by these lines, what fine construction there
_is_, even in this hardest of stones (after the diamond), which usually
appears as a massive lump or knot. There is therefore no real
mineralogical distinction between needle crystals and knotted crystals,
but, practically, crystallised masses throw themselves into one of the
three groups we have been examining to-day; and appear either as
Needles, as Folia, or as Knots; when they are in needles (or fibres),
they make the stones or rocks formed out of them '_fibrous_;' when they
are in folia, they make them '_foliated_;' when they are in knots (or
grains), '_granular_.' Fibrous rocks are comparatively rare, in mass;
but fibrous minerals are innumerable; and it is often a question which
really no one but a young lady could possibly settle, whether one should
call the fibres composing them 'threads' or 'needles.' Here is
amianthus, for instance, which is quite as fine and soft as any cotton
thread you ever sewed with; and here is sulphide of bismuth, with
sharper points and brighter lustre than your finest needles have; and
fastened in white webs of quartz more delicate than your finest lace;
and here is sulphide of antimony, which looks like mere purple wool, but
it is all of purple needle crystals; and here is red oxide of copper
(you must not breathe on it as you look, or you may blow some of the
films of it off the stone), which is simply a woven tissue of scarlet
silk. However, these finer thread forms are comparatively rare, while
the bolder and needle-like crystals occur constantly; so that, I
believe, 'Needle-crystal' is the best word (the grand one is 'Acicular
crystal,' but Sibyl will tell you it is all the same, only less easily
understood; and therefore more scientific). Then the Leaf-crystals, as I
said, form an immense mass of foliated rocks; and the Granular crystals,
which are of many kinds, form essentially granular, or granitic and
porphyritic rocks; and it is always a point of more interest to me (and
I think will ultimately be to you), to consider the causes which force a
given mineral to take any one of these three general forms, than what
the peculiar geometrical limitations are, belonging to its own
crystals.[150] It is more interesting to me, for instance, to try and
find out why the red oxide of copper, usually crystallising in cubes or
octahedrons, makes itself exquisitely, out of its cubes, into this red
silk in one particular Cornish mine, than what are the absolutely
necessary angles of the octahedron, which is its common form. At all
events, that mathematical part of crystallography is quite beyond girls'
strength; but these questions of the various tempers and manners of
crystals are not only comprehensible by you, but full of the most
curious teaching for you. For in the fulfilment, to the best of their
power, of their adopted form under given circumstances, there are
conditions entirely resembling those of human virtue; and indeed
expressible under no term so proper as that of the Virtue, or Courage of
crystals:--which, if you are not afraid of the crystals making you
ashamed of yourselves, we will try to get some notion of, to-morrow. But
it will be a bye-lecture, and more about yourselves than the minerals,
Don't come unless you like.
MARY. I'm sure the crystals will make us ashamed of ourselves; but we'll
come, for all that.
L. Meantime, look well and quietly over these needle, or thread
crystals, and those on the other two tables, with magnifying glasses,
and see what thoughts will come into your little heads about them. For
the best thoughts are generally those which come without being forced,
one does not know how. And so I hope you will get through your wet day
patiently.
FOOTNOTES:
[150] Note iv.
LECTURE V.
_CRYSTAL VIRTUES._
_A quiet talk, in the afternoon, by the sunniest window of
the Drawing-room. Present_, FLORRIE, ISABEL, MAY, LUCILLA,
KATHLEEN, DORA, MARY, _and some others, who have saved time
for the bye-Lecture._
L. So you have really come, like good girls, to be made ashamed of
yourselves?
DORA (_very meekly_). No, we needn't be made so; we always are.
L. Well, I believe that's truer than most pretty speeches: but you know,
you saucy girl, some people have more reason to be so than others. Are
you sure everybody is, as well as you?
THE GENERAL VOICE. Yes, yes; everybody.
L. What! Florrie ashamed of herself?
(FLORRIE _hides behind the curtain._)
L. And Isabel?
(ISABEL _hides under the table._)
L. And May?
(MAY _runs into the corner behind the piano._)
L. And Lucilla?
(LUCILLA _hides her face in her hands._)
L. Dear, dear; but this will never do. I shall have to tell you of the
faults of the crystals, instead of virtues, to put you in heart again.
MAY (_coming out of her corner_). Oh! have the crystals faults, like us?
L. Certainly, May. Their best virtues are shown in fighting their
faults. And some have a great many faults; and some are very naughty
crystals indeed.
FLORRIE (_from behind her curtain_). As naughty as me?
ISABEL (_peeping from under the table cloth_). Or me?
L. Well, I don't know. They never forget their syntax, children, when
once they've been taught it. But I think some of them are, on the whole,
worse than any of you. Not that it's amiable of you to look so radiant,
all in a minute, on that account.
DORA. Oh! but it's so much more comfortable.
(_Everybody seems to recover their spirits. Eclipse of_
FLORRIE _and_ ISABEL _terminates._)
L. What kindly creatures girls are, after all, to their neighbours'
failings! I think you may be ashamed of yourselves indeed, now,
children! I can tell you, you shall hear of the highest crystalline
merits that I can think of, to-day: and I wish there were more of them;
but crystals have a limited, though a stern, code of morals; and their
essential virtues are but two;--the first is to be pure, and the second
to be well shaped.
MARY. Pure! Does that mean clear--transparent?
L. No; unless in the case of a transparent substance. You cannot have a
transparent crystal of gold; but you may have a perfectly pure one.
ISABEL. But you said it was the shape that made things be crystals;
therefore, oughtn't their shape to be their first virtue, not their
second?
L. Right, you troublesome mousie. But I call their shape only their
second virtue, because it depends on time and accident, and things which
the crystal cannot help. If it is cooled too quickly, or shaken, it must
take what shape it can; but it seems as if, even then, it had in itself
the power of rejecting impurity, if it has crystalline life enough. Here
is a crystal of quartz, well enough shaped in its way; but it seems to
have been languid and sick at heart; and some white milky substance has
got into it, and mixed itself up with it, all through. It makes the
quartz quite yellow, if you hold it up to the light, and milky blue on
the surface. Here is another, broken into a thousand separate facets,
and out of all traceable shape; but as pure as a mountain spring. I like
this one best.
THE AUDIENCE. So do I--and I--and I.
MARY. Would a crystallographer?
L. I think so. He would find many more laws curiously exemplified in the
irregularly grouped but pure crystal. But it is a futile question, this
of first or second. Purity is in most cases a prior, if not a nobler,
virtue; at all events it is most convenient to think about it first.
MARY. But what ought we to think about it? Is there much to be
thought--I mean, much to puzzle one?
L. I don't know what you call 'much.' It is a long time since I met with
anything in which there was little. There's not much in this, perhaps.
The crystal must be either dirty or clean,--and there's an end. So it is
with one's hands, and with one's heart--only you can wash your hands
without changing them, but not hearts, nor crystals. On the whole, while
you are young, it will be as well to take care that your hearts don't
want much washing; for they may perhaps need wringing also, when they
do.
(_Audience doubtful and uncomfortable._ LUCILLA _at last