32 A, Morlot on Archeology. 
The Catalonian forge is still used in the Pyrenees, where it yields — 
tolerable results, but it consumes a large quantity of charcoal, — 
requires much wind, and is only to be applied to pure ore, con- 
taining but a very small proportion of earthy matter producing | 
scorize; for the process consists in a mere reduction with a sol- ‘ 
dering and welding together of the reduced particles, without f 
the metal properly melting. According to the manner in which © 
the operation is conducted, bar-iron or steel are obtained at will. _ 
This direct method dispenses with the intermediate production _ 
of cast iron, which was unknown to the ancients, and which is ~ 
now the only means of producing iron on a great scale. 
Silver accompanies the introduction of iron into Europe, at 
least in the northern parts, while gold was already known during 
the bronze-age. This is natural, for gold is generally found as 
a pure metal, while silver has usually to be extracted from dif- 
ferent kinds of ore by more or less complicated metallurgical 
operations—for example, by cupellation. | 
Vith iron appear also for the first time in Europe, glass, coined — 
money, that powerful agent of commerce, and finally the alpha- 
bet, which, as the money of intelligence, vastly increases the 
activity and circulation of thought,* and is sufficient of itself to 
characterize a new and wonderful era of progress. From thence 
can we date the dawn of history and of science, in particular of 
astronomy. : 
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mated objects, either in the shape of plants or animals. It is 
only with the iron-age that art, taking a higher range, rose to 
the representation of plants, animals, and even of the human ~ 
frame. No wonder, then, if idols of the bronze-age, as well as 
of the stone-age, are wanting in Europe. It is to be presumed 
that the worship of fire, of the sun pe be the moon, was preva- 
lent in remote antiquity, at least during the bronze-age, perhaps 
also during the stone-age. 
The preceding pages constitute a sketch, certainly very rough 
and imperfect, of the development of civilization. They estab- 
lish however in a striking manner the fact of a progress, slow, 
* “The circulation of ideas is for the mind what the circulation of specie is for 
commerce, a true source of wealth” ©. V. de Bonstetten: L’homme Midi et 
Phomme du Nord. Genévye, 1826, p. 175. é 
