106 ALL THINGS USEFUL. 



nature ; but there are a few others. We must not 

 abstain from the examination of any thing on ac- 

 count of the ignorant having a prejudice against it. 

 It has been already said, that no production of na- 

 ture is ugly; and it may be added, that when we 

 are properly acquainted with them, none of the pro- 

 ductions of nature are injurious. It is true, that 

 there are some that would poison us, if we ate them : 

 others would burn the body; if they came in contact 

 with it; and others again offend, and even waste and 

 wear our organs of sense. But it is our own fault, 

 if we allow them to produce any of these bad effects. 

 We need not swallow arsenic, be bitten by rattle- 

 snakes, offended by the sight of toads or newts, or 

 sickened by noxious effluvia. We should find out 

 their properties, and shun those that are hurtful, at 

 the same time that we turn to advantage those that 

 are beneficial. Deadly as the white oxide of arsenic 

 is when taken into the human stomach, arsenic, used 

 for proper purposes, is a highly valuable substance. 

 Some of its oxides are beautiful paints, others give 

 purity to glass, hardness to the metal of printing 

 types and the mirrors of telescopes ; and even the 

 deadly poison itself is the most effectual remedy in 

 some diseases. Prussic acid, again, which in cer- 

 tain states is a more deadly poison, perhaps, than 

 even arsenic, is not only in other states a valuable 

 medicine, as well as a most essential ingredient in 

 some of the most grateful tastes and odours, but it 

 is highly probable that it tends as much, and perhaps 

 more than any other substance in nature, to produce 

 the colours of those flowers which render the fields 

 and the gardens so gay. These are, no doubt, ex- 

 treme cases; but they are cases to the purpose; 

 and with them before us, we must learn not to have 

 an aversion to, or to despise, any one of nature's 

 productions, until we can be sure that we know all 

 its properties and all the purposes that it will answer. 

 And as that is a degree of knowledge at which we 



