Geo. Metals are very heavy, too.
Tut. True. They are the heaviest bodies in nature; for the lightest metal is nearly twice as heavy as the heaviest stone. Well, what else?
Geo. Why, they will bear beating with a hammer, which a stone would not, without flying in pieces.
Tut. Yes: that property of extending or spreading under the hammer, is called malleability; and another, like it, is that of bearing to be drawn out into a wire, which is called ductility. Metals have both these, and much of their use depends upon them.
Geo. Metals will melt, too.
Har. What! will iron melt?
Tut. Yes; all metals will melt, though some require greater heat than others. The property of melting is called fusibility. Do you know anything more about them?
Geo. No; except that they come out of the ground, I believe.
Tut. That is properly added, for it is this circumstance which makes them rank among fossils, or minerals. To sum up their character, then, a metal is a brilliant, opaque, heavy, malleable, ductile, and fusible mineral.
Geo. I think I can hardly remember all that.