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.  Here, for instance, is a good garnet, living with good mica; one rich red, and the other silver white; the mica leaves exactly room enough for the garnet to crystallize comfortably in; and the garnet lives happily in its little white house; fitted to it, like a pholas in its cell.  But here are wicked garnets living with wicked mica.  See what ruin they make of each other!  You cannot tell which is which; the garnets look like dull red stains on the crumbling stone.  By the way, I never could understand, if St. Gothard is a real saint, why he can’t keep his garnets in better order.  These are all under his care; but I suppose there are too many of them for him to look after.  The streets of Airolo are paved with them.

May.  Paved with garnets?

L. With mica-slate and garnets; I broke this bit out of a paving stone.  Now garnets and mica are natural friends, and generally fond of each other; but you see how they quarrel when they are ill brought up.  So it is always.  Good crystals are friendly with almost all other good crystals, however little they chance to see of each other, or however opposite their habits may be; while wicked crystals quarrel with one another, though they may be exactly alike in habits, and see each other continually.  And of course the wicked crystals quarrel with the good ones.

Isabel.  Then do the good ones get angry?