ALUMINIUM. 215 



salt, that we have only to bring it in contact with chloride of 

 aluminium under proper circumstances, when it takes away 

 the chlorine, and leaves aluminium behind. 



None but those who study chemistry, and, studying it, 

 admire it, can perceive the beauty of alliance between causes 

 and effects which an acquaintance with that beautiful science 

 discloses. Had we not the powerful agent sodium at our 

 command, we could not at least, not by the method now 

 followed have educed the metal aluminium from its hidden 

 lurking-places. Had not an Italian anatomist, Galvani by 

 name, chanced to remark that some frogs, which he was 

 engaged in dissecting, twitched and jerked their lifeless legs 

 under the excitement of minute streams of electricity, we 

 might not, in all probability should not, have discovered the 

 very existence of sodium, much less should we have succeeded 

 in extracting it. So wonderfully evident in the progress of 

 scientific discovery are the golden links of causation. 



The study of this alliance between truths and their results 

 cannot be recommended too forcibly. There is no better 

 means of mental discipline for awakening us to the intrinsic 

 value of truth. It teaches us to respect, and foster, and 

 cherish truth because it is true, and not to measure our esti- 

 mation of it by the immediate value it can be made to bring. 



Think, O ye sordid ones, who see no beauty in the golden 

 radiance of truth,* except it at once disclose some treasure in 

 your path, that the very existence of the beautiful aluminium 

 would have been now unknown to us, had not a certain Gal- 

 vani, in the year 1783, observed the electrical kickings of a 

 dead frog ! 



We have got aluminium, and now cui bono what good 

 is it? 



Let us see. Aluminium is a white resplendent metal, 

 capable of assuming a higher polish than silver, and does not 

 tarnish when exposed to the air, as silver is apt to do. Though 

 alumina, or oxide of aluminium, so obstinately refuses to give 



