MKTALLIQUES METAPHOU. 



787 



lowing general characters : 1. They possess a pe- 

 culiar lustre, which continues in the streak and in 

 their smallest fragments. 2. They are fusible by heat, 

 and in fusion retain their lustre and opacity. 3. They 

 are all (except selenium) good conductors both of 

 electricity and caloric. 4. Many of them may be ex- 

 tended under the hammer, and are called malleable ; 

 or under the rolling' press, and are called luminable ; 

 or drawn into wire, and are called ductile. 5. When 

 their saline combinations are electrized, the metals 

 separate at the negative pole. 6. When exposed to 

 the action of oxygen, chlorine, or iodine, at an ele- 

 vated temperature, they generally take fire, and com- 

 bining with one or other of these three elementary 

 dissolvents, in definite proportions, are converted 

 into earthy, or saline-looking bodies, devoid of 

 metallic lustre and ductility, called oxides, chlorides, 

 or iodides. 7. They are capable of combining in their 

 melted state with each other, in almost every propor- 

 tion, constituting alloys. 8. Most of them combine, 

 in definite proportions, with sulphur and phosphorus, 

 forming bodies frequently of a semi-metallic lustre ; 

 and others unite with hydrogen, carbon and boron, 

 giving rise to peculiar gaseous or solid compounds. 

 Their names are as follows : 1. platinum, 2. gold, 

 3. silver, 4. palladium, 5. mercury, 6. copper, 7. 

 iron, 8. tin, 9. lead, 10. nickel, 11. cadmium, 12. 

 zinc, 13. bismuth, 14. antimony, 15. manganese, 

 16. cobalt, 17. tellurium, 18. arsenic, 19. chromium, 

 20. molybdenum, 21. tungsten, 22. columbium, 23. 

 selenium, 24. osmium, 25. rhodium, 26. iridium, 27. 

 uranium, 28. titanium, 29. cerium, 30. potassium, 

 31. sodium, 32. lithium, 33. calcium, 34. barium, 35. 

 strontium, 36. magnesium, 37. yttrium, 38. glucinum, 

 39. aluminum, 40. zirconium, 41. silicium, 42. tho- 

 rinum.* The first twelve are malleable, and so are 

 the 30th, 31st, and 32d, in their congealed state. 

 The first 16 yield oxides, which are neutral salifiable 

 bases. The metals 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 are 

 aeidifiable by combination with oxygen. Of the 

 oxides of the rest, up to the 30th, little is known, 

 The remaining metals form, with oxygen, the alka- 

 line and earthy bases. 



METALLIQUES; a kind of Austrian stocks, so 

 called because the interest is paid in the precious 

 metals, and not, like the interest of other stocks, in 

 paper money. The name was afterwards used also 

 in other countries, for instance, in Russia, for stocks 

 of a similar kind. 



METALLOID, in chemistry ; a name given at 

 first to the metals which have been obtained from 

 the fixed alkalies and some of the earths. These 

 bodies, having been found to be completely metallic, 

 are now classed with the other metals, and no dis- 

 tinction is necessary. 



METALLURGY, METALLURGIC CHEMIS- 

 TRY, is that part of chemistry which teaches the 

 combinations and analyses of metals. It has been 

 much cultivated of late. 



METAMORPHOSIS (from the Greek (it, over, 

 and ft,o<pn, the form); a change of the form, used 

 also for an entire change of the subject. The active 

 imagination of nations in an early stage of history, 

 indulges itself in representing metamorphoses of 

 men, beasts, plants, stones, &c., and these pro- 

 ductions of youthful imagination enter into their 

 religion, philosophy, poetry (generally at first iden- 

 tical). Surrounded by the constant metamorphoses 

 of nature, and seeking, as man always does, to con- 

 nect effects and causes, yet unable, from his limited 

 knowledge, to satisfy his desires, he is led to ascribe 

 many changes, which riper ages find to be the con- 



* To this list we must now add vanadium, a new metal lately 

 discovered by Sestroui, director of the iron mines of Falilun, 

 in Scandinavia. 



sequences of eternal laws, to sudden metamorphoses. 

 To these he resorts to explain the mysteries of his 

 present condition (which perplex the mind of man in 

 the infancy of society as well as in advanced cultiva- 

 tion), and, by a series of metamorphoses, accounts for 

 the undefinable connexion between man, nature and 

 providence. To all this we must add the great 

 interest which attends the story of metamorphoses. 

 Even in this reflecting age, in which cool understand- 

 ing seems to have acquired the ascendency, who can 

 read, without interest, the tales of strange transfor- 

 mations contained in the Arabian Nights those wild 

 productions of a creative imagination? Of the me- 

 tamorphoses of the Greek mythology, while some 

 startle the sober taste of our age, others belong to 

 the sweetest productions of poetry. The popular 

 belief in metamorphoses has by no means subsided 

 entirely in all Christian countries. In natural history, 

 the word metamorphosis is used sometimes for any 

 change in the organization of matter, as, for instance, 

 the transformation of food or rain into animal or 

 vegetable organic substances, but more particularly 

 for those sudden changes in the form of things, which 

 are obvious and interesting even to ordinary observa- 

 tion, as the change of the pupa into a butterfly. 



METAPHOR (Greek, p,tric<poa, from pi<ra, a pre- 

 position often signifying in compound words, over, 

 and $!&>, 1 carry); a figure of rhetoric, by which a 

 word is transferred from the subject to which it pro- 

 perly belongs, and applied to another which has 

 some similitude to its proper subject, with a view to 

 give impressiveness to the latter. The metaphor 

 may be merely in an epithet or an auxiliary term, as 

 " winged haste," the " spring of life," &c., or in the 

 main subject of a sentence, as when a hero is called 

 a lion, a minister a pillar of the state, &c. In respect 

 to the pouits of comparison, the metaphor may either 

 put something animate or intellectual for something 

 inanimate and material; for instance, " the wrath of 

 the sea," " the bountiful earth," to represent nature 

 as if endowed with will ; or, vice versa, may substi- 

 tute the physical for the spiritual, as, " the stars of 

 his merits will shine from the night of the grave." 

 As the impressions which we receive through the 

 senses are the liveliest, the designation of things 

 spiritual by images taken from the material world 

 may often produce a striking effect. Thirdly, a 

 metaphor may consist in the transfer of a term from 

 one thing to another, falling under the same great 

 division of material or spiritual, but substituting the 

 more familiar for the less, as when we speak of the 

 " silver moon." Brevity and power are the charac- 

 teristic excellencies of the metaphor; novelty shows 

 the original wit. Unexpected contrast may produce 

 an effect sublime and ridiculous in the highest degree. 

 Jean Paul, in his J'orschule der Aesthetik says, " The 

 metaphor is the proof of the unity of both worlds 

 (spiritual and physical .) The metaphors of all nations 

 are similar, and none calls error light, or truth dark- 

 ness." Liveliness of conception, comprehensiveness 

 of view, and activity of imagination, are necessary to 

 produce good metaphors, which often produce great 

 effects, sometimes to the prejudice of sober reason- 

 ing. He who wishes to study metaphors must read 

 the Old Testament and Shakspeare. A slight con- 

 sideration will show us how constantly we speak in 

 metaphors, and that we convey most abstract ideas 

 by metaphors of the second kind; thus, He is cold 

 towards me, He is large minded, &c. It is main- 

 tained by many, that all language began by the 

 designation of objects and actions affecting the senses, 

 and that when the mind began to abstract, man was 

 obliged to use his stock of words for abstract 

 ideas, so that all words, if we had the means to 

 trace them, would be found to refer originally to 



