an, destitute of metals,
can do but little to improve his surroundings; but grant him these, and
victory over his environment is secured.

We can not retrace the exact steps of this beautiful discovery; we are
not sure to what family it is to be ascribed. Perhaps not to any one
alone. Nature may have taken her children by the hand, and kindly
guided their feeble steps in the line of experiments leading up to this
knowledge, and, finally, one family, more fortunate than the others,
succeeded in the attempt. All great discoveries have been approached
in different directions, by different people. No sooner is it made than
this fact appears, and people widely separated by time and place are
found to be on the verge of the same great truth. It was probably so at
the discovery of metallurgy.

The Turanian tribes, who had so long inhabited Europe, were suddenly
confronted by the victorious hosts of the Celts, the vanguard of the
Aryans, the precursors of a higher culture. The movements of these
primitive people could not fail to have a great effect on the human
mind. It would become alert, keen, and active. Such was the state of
ancient society when a knowledge of bronze was introduced--a discovery
which consigned stone, hitherto the substance most commonly made use of
to advance human interests, to a subordinate position, and opened up for
man the exhaustless mineral stores of nature.

It is suggested by some that gold was the first metallic substance
employed. Its glittering particles would attract the attention of
primitive man, and little articles of ornament were early manufactured
from it. To be sure, the supply was very limited; but what there was
would serve the useful purpose of imparting to men some idea of metallic
substances. Portions of it falling in the fire might have suggested
the idea of smelting and of molding--might, at least, have lead to
experiments in that line. The supply of gold existing in a native
state is so small, that no use could have been made of it except for
ornaments.

Iron, we know, is the most abundant mineral. But it is very rare in a
native state, and its ores have nothing distinguishing about them,
and so it is not strange that another metal received the attention of
primitive man. That metal was probably copper. It is often found in a
pure state in nature. In the Michigan mines of our own country, masses
of pure copper many tons in weight have been discovered.<5> No such
rich deposi