MORLOT — SOME GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCH-SOLOGT. 
49 
as it allows civilized nations to work metals. The importance is so 
great, that deprived of it man would perhaps scarcely have risen 
above the condition of the brute. The ancients already were sensible 
of tliis. Witness the fable of " Prometheus." As to their sacred 
perpetual fire, its origin seems to lie in the difficulty of procuring it, 
thereby rendering its preservation essential. 
In Europe the Stone-age came to an end by the introduction of 
bronze. This metal is an alloy of about nine parts of copper and one 
part of tin.* It melts and moulds well ; the molten mass, in cool- 
ing, slowly acqiiires a tolerable degree of hardness— inferior to that 
of steel it is true, but superior to that of very pure iron. We there- 
fore understand how bronze would long be used for manufacturing 
cutting-instruments, weapons, and numerous personal ornaments. 
The northern antiquarians have very properly called this second 
great phase in the development of European civilization the 
Bronze-age. 
The bronze articles of this period, with a few trifling exceptions, 
have not been produced by hammering, but have been cast, often 
with a considerable degree of skill. Even the sword-blades were 
cast, and the hammer (of stone) was only used to impart a greater 
degree of hardness to the edge of the weapon. 
1 The Bronze-age has, therefore, wdtnessed a mining industry which 
j was completely wanting during the Stone-age. Now the art of 
1 mining is so essential to civilization, that without it the world would 
ji perhaps yet be exclusively inhabited by savages. It is, therefore, 
ji worth our while to inquire more closely into the origin of bronze. 
Copper was not very difficult to obtain. In the first place, virgin 
I copper is not exceedingly scarce. Then the different kinds of ore 
j which contain copper, combined vdth other elements, are either 
I highly coloured, or present a marked metallic appearance, and are 
• consequently easily known ; they are besides not hard to smelt, so 
as to separate the metal. Finally, copper-ore is not at all scarce, it 
is met with in the older geological series of most countries. 
Virgin tin is unknown, but tin-ore is heavy, of dark colour, and 
* Bronze is still used for casting bells, cannon,, and certain parts of machinery. 
It must not be confounded witb common brass, which is a compound of copper 
and zinc, much leas hard, and appearing only in the Iron-age. 
VOL. III. G 
