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EXTRACT OE MEAT. 
BY CHAELES BONER. 
E ach day of our existence we are made sensible of the 
benefits we owe to science. We enjoy them^ not abso- 
lutely ungratefully_, but rather without thinking at the time 
how they have reached us ; for they present themselves to us 
on such various occasions^ that we are accustomed to accept 
them without stopping to heed the one source whence they 
all — and whence only — they flow. Science influences the pro- 
vision of the commonest necessities of our life to such an 
extent_, that the poorest among us would now be unable 
to dispense with its help but for a single day. Deprive 
him of some few of the benefits which science has placed at 
his disposal^ and he_, poor as he is^ will complain of the 
injustice and the merciless tyranny ; and at once declare 
himself the most ill-used and unfortunate of men. Beggar 
though he be, he would appeal against the monstrous act 
as vehemently as he would if unlawfully imprisoned, and 
thus that palladium of English liberty — the Habeas Corpus 
Act — were violated in his person. Though not aware of 
the fact, science has propounded her laws for him in rags 
as much as for any one else. But he only knows of ‘^Mhe 
creature comforts he receives, and does not ask whence 
they come, or how. This, however, he knows, that he 
neither can nor will do without them. They are become 
to him matters of course; and he is no more able to con- 
ceive of a time when they were not, than of a world without 
a sun. 
One of the striking attributes of science is its unselfishness. 
It disinters the ore, separates the metal from the surrounding* 
dross, and lays it, purified and fit for use, by the wayside for 
the passers to employ as their ingenuity or their necessities 
dictate. Of the thing thus found one makes a weapon, 
another a household implement, and a third a crown. Each 
turns to account as he may or can the knowledge — the fact — 
that science has thus put before him, to accept it as a free gift 
if he so chooses, to disregard it, or adapt it to his own 
purposes, as he feels inclined. 
Should years pass and the gift lie unheeded, science 1^5 
nevertheless amply rewarded. For in its researches it never 
had in view the application of its discovery; that it leaves to 
