OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 55 



of a knowlege of nature and its laws to our well- 

 being ; though, like the great inventions of the ma- 

 riner's compass and of gunpowder, they may have 

 stood, in their origin, unconnected with more gene- 

 ral views. They are rather to be looked upon as 

 the spontaneous produce of a territory essentially 

 fertile, than as forming part of the succession of 

 harvests which the same bountiful soil, diligently 

 cultivated, is capable of yielding. The history of 

 iodine above related affords, however, a perfect 

 specimen of the manner in which a knowledge of 

 natural properties and laws, collected from facts 

 having no reference to the object to which they 

 have been subsequently applied, enables us to set in 

 array the resources of nature against herself; and 

 deliberately, of afore-thought, to devise remedies 

 against the dangers and inconveniences which beset 

 us. In this view we might instance, too, the con- 

 ductor^ which, in countries where thunder-storms 

 are more frequent and violent than in our own, 

 and at sea (where they are attended with peculiar 

 danger, both from the greater probability of ac- 

 cident, and its more terrible consequences when it 

 does occur,) forms a most real and efficient preserv- 

 ative against the effects of lightning * : the safety- 

 lamp, which enables us to walk with light and 



* Throughout France the conductor is recognised as a most 

 valuable and useful instrument ; and in those parts of Germany 

 where thunder-storms are still more common and tremendous 

 they are become nearly universal. In Munich there is hardly 

 a modern house unprovided with them, and of a much better 

 construction than ours several copper wires twisted into a 

 rope. 



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