Geo. Yes—he had wings to his heels.
Tut. Copper is Venus.
Geo. Venus! surely it is scarcely beautiful enough for that.
Tut. But they had disposed of the most beautiful ones before. Iron is Mars.
Har. That is right enough, because swords are made of iron.
Tut. True. Then tin is Jupiter, and lead Saturn. I suppose only to make out the number. Yet the dulness of lead might be thought to agree with that planet which is most remote from the sun. These names, childish as they may seem, are worth remembering, since chymists and physicians still apply them to many preparations of the various metals. You will, probably, often hear of martial, lunar, mercurial, and saturnine; and you may now know what they mean.
Geo. I think the knowledge of metals seems more useful than all you have told us about plants.
Tut. I don’t know that. Many nations make no use at all of metals, but there are none which do not owe a great part of their subsistence to vegetables. However, without inquiring what parts of natural knowledge are most useful, you may be assured of this, that all are useful in some degree or other; and there are few things that give one man greater superiority over another, than the extent and accuracy of his knowledge in these particulars. One person passes all his life upon the earth, a stranger to it; while another finds himself at home everywhere.
EYES AND NO EYES; OR, THE ART OF SEEING.
“Well, Robert, where have you been walking this afternoon?” said Mr. Andrews to one of his pupils, at the close of a holyday.