IRON. 
517 
distributing that substance with the greatest pro- 
fusion which is best calculated to promote our wel- 
fare. Wherever it can be of essential service to us, 
it occurs in abundance : the quantity seems to in- 
crease in proportion to our wants, and only falls 
short where it is scarcely required. This is the 
case in tropical countries, where the fruits of the 
earth are liberally provided almost without the la- 
bour of the husbandman. In the temperate zones 
we find the mineral increase, as in those divisions 
of the globe its services are more necessary; but 
above all, in the cold climates, where man is doomed 
to struggle against a stubborn soil and inclement 
seasons, and where he is subject to a thousand 
wants, which can only be supplied by the labour of 
his hands, Nature has placed entire mountains of 
this metal. 
It was for some time a matter of doubt with mi- 
neralogists whether iron ever occurred in its native 
state, that is both malleable and ductile, without the 
assistance of art. It is now, however, known that 
native iron exists in many places in as great a state 
of perfection as if it had just passed through the 
forge. 
This kind of iron is found in two different situa- 
tions in the earth, and it must be confessed that it 
is difficult to account for the origin of one of them. 
In the first case it is met with on the surface of the 
earth, often in very considerable masses, and insu- 
lated as it were on the ground without a vestige of 
