242 Natural Theology. 



We have first the metals, gold and silver, almost 

 defying the power of oxygen, beautiful and capable 

 of being drawn into finest wires, and hammered into 

 thinnest sheets. They meet the wants of man by 

 gratifying the love of the beautiful, which they do, 

 not by any conventional usage, or because they hap- 

 pen to be rare, but by an intrinsic beauty, and the 

 power of retaining, for an almost unlimited time, the 

 delicate work with which the cunning of the artist 

 has enriched them. They also meet our demands 

 in art and science and in commerce. 



In platinum we have another noble metal, without 

 which the chemist would feel his power wonderfully 

 abridged. It seemed to be discovered just when the 

 progress of science absolutely demanded such a sub- 

 stance. If the chemist had ordered a substance for 

 his use, he could have hardly combined in it all the 

 desirable properties which he already recognizes in 

 this metal. Its infusibility is extreme, withstanding, 

 as it does, the most intense combustion of the ordi- 

 nary furnace, yet welding at a comparatively mode- 

 rate heat. It almost defies the strongest simple acid, 

 but yields readily to nitric and hydrochloric, mixed. 

 It is one of the densest known substances, and yet 

 is capable of being put into the most porous form of 

 any metal known. These properties, which make 

 it so valuable for apparatus, and the chemical nature 

 of its salts, strike me as a wonderful provision ; and 

 I never look at the platinum ware of the laboratory, 

 the crucibles, and foil, and wires, and other forms in 

 which this substance is used, without recognizing a 



