easily spun on a silk thread, by means of a hand wheel, and afterwards made into what is called gold lace.

After this description of iron and gold, it is to be hoped that the reader will acknowledge the former to be the more useful of the two: they are both placed within our reach by the great Giver of all things, but he has, in many ways, most obviously pointed out which we should prefer. Gold is an article of convenience, but we could not cultivate the soil if we had no other metal; and were it to disappear from the earth, we could dispense with it, provided we had iron. The Spaniards and Portuguese, whom the ignorant would suppose to be the richest people on the earth, because they are the owners of so much gold, are nevertheless the poorest; and Great Britain, which contains scarcely any gold, is in reality the richest; since its iron, its trade, and manufactures, give employment, in the first instance, to the industrious, and afterwards procure for us as much gold as we require. In the warmer parts of the earth, where gold is most plenty, the soil is poor and unproductive in comparison' to that of our own country, where the toils of the industrious farmer are repaid by the most abundant harvests. In a part of Europe called, Transylvania, seven hundred families of the people called Gipsies, endeavoured to support themselves, by collecting the gold dust washed down by the streams into the bed of the rivers

there, and the account of every traveller whe has seen them, describes them as living in the utmost poverty, and scarcely half fed. Let us take seven hundred families at home, put iron spades and iron ploughs into the hands of the men, and give spinning wheels to the women, and let both be able and willing to use them, and there is no doubt but their labour will support their families in plenty and comfort, and they will even be able to send their little ones to school, till they are strong enough to work, and to repay their parents for their care of them, when too young and helpless to assist themselves.

True riches, therefore, are religion, industry, and contentment; since these will never fail to bring happiness along with them. When they are united in the same person, he will perform his duty towards God and his neighbour, whereas the love of gold has often led to the most melancholy crimes. Far be it, therefore, from the poor man to think that gold confers happiness, and that he ought to desire it above all thingsthe wisest man that ever wrote was King Solomon, and he was moreover inspired by God when he said, "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold, and to get understanding, rather to be chosen than silver."

SILVER.

SILVER, the next metal whose history we are to relate, is considered, like gold, a perfect metal, from its property of resisting rust, and from suffering but little alteration in the fire, when compared with other metals, If lead, for example, be held in a common shovel over the fire, and kept exposed to the heat for some time after it is melted, a drossy film by degrees collects upon its surface, till the whole is changed into a powder; expose also a common key for a few days to the weather, and thie damp will gradually eat into the surface, converting it into what is called rust. Gold and silver, on the contrary, may be exposed for years, in the dampest situation, without rusting, or kept for a long time in the hottest fire without loss or change.

Silver is found either pure or in the state of an ore, mixed with other substances. In the latter case, it has no lustre or brightness, but resembles a common stone, though the miner knows perfectly well the process of extracting it. In the former, it is found sparkling, and easy to be discerned amidst the different sorts of rocks; sometimes it is found dispersed in stones, or adhering to the outside of them, branching out like thready fibres, nor is it rare to find silver in little masses, consisting of small filaments like a ball of silver thread burnt; and

lastly, it is sometimes found in pure solid masses, weighing a drachm or more: in the year 1666 a mass of pure silver, weighing five hundred weight, was found in a mine in Norway, which is still preserved in the Royal collection of Copenhagen: but this is small, compared with the block of native silver which was dug out of the mines of Schneeburgh, in the year 1478, and which weighed upwards of forty thousand pounds. Duke Albert of Saxony had the curiosity to go down into the mine to see it, and it is related of him, that ordering the cloth to be laid upon it, he said to those who sat down to dinner with him, The Emperor of Germany is indeed a powerful Prince, but you must allow that my table is of more value than his."

When silver is found unmixed with any other metal, such as copper or tin, it is said to be native, and the process of extracting it from the stone, in which it exists, is not difficult. The ore is first broken in the stamping mill, till it is reduced to powder, the workmen then mix it up with quicksilver into a sort of paste, which they knead in troughs through which a stream of water is constantly passing, till all the earthy particles are gradually washed away; after this, all the quicksilver which has not united with the silver, is separated by straining through a leather bag, and the remainder, being exposed to a hot fire, passes off in a vapour, leaving the silver behind.

When silver is found combined with other