Tut. Yes; I know not when I should have done, if I were tell you of all.
Har. Then I think it is really more valuable than gold, though it is so much cheaper.
Tut. That was the opinion of the wise Solon, when he observed to the rich king Crœsus, who was showing him his treasures, “He who possesses more iron will soon be master of all this gold.”
Har. I suppose he meant weapons and armour?
Tut. He did; but there are many nobler uses for these metals; and few circumstances denote the progress of the arts in a country more than having attained the full use of iron, without which scarcely any manufacture or machinery can be brought to perfection. From the difficulty of melting it out of the ore, many nations have been longer in discovering it than some of the other metals. The Greeks, in Homer’s time, seem to have employed copper or brass for their weapons much more than iron; and the Mexicans and Peruvians, who possessed gold and silver, were unacquainted with iron, when the Spaniards invaded them.
Geo. Iron is very subject to rust, however.
Tut. It is so, and that is one of its worst properties. Every liquor, and even a moist air corrode it. But the rust of iron is not pernicious: on the contrary, it is a very useful medicine.
Geo. I have heard of steel drops and steel filings given for medicine.
Tut. Yes; iron is given in a variety of forms, and the property of them all is to strengthen the constitution. Many springs are made medicinal by the iron that they dissolve in the bowels of the earth. These are called chalybeate waters, and they may be known by their inky taste, and the rust-coloured sediment they leave in their course.
Har. May we drink such water if we meet with it?