A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER XIII.

SOAP, CAN­DLES, TAL­LOW TREE, SPER­MA­CETI, WAX, MA­HOGANY, IN­DI­AN RUB­BER OR CAOUTCHOUC, SPONGE, CORAL, LIME, CAR­BON, OXY­GEN, NI­TRO­GEN, GAS, HY­DRO­GEN, CHALK, AND MAR­BLE.

Of what is Soap com­posed?

Of so­da or potash, and var­ious oily sub­stances; it is so use­ful for do­mes­tic and oth­er pur­pos­es, that it may be re­gard­ed as one of the nec­es­saries of life; im­mense quan­ti­ties of it are con­sumed in all civ­ilized coun­tries. Soft soap is gen­er­al­ly made of a lye of wood-​ash­es and quick­lime, boiled up with tal­low or oil; com­mon house­hold soap of so­da and tal­low, or of potash and tal­low; when potash is used, a large por­tion of com­mon salt, which con­tains so­da, is added to hard­en it. The finest white soaps are made of olive oil and a lye con­sist­ing of so­da and quick­lime; per­fumes are some­times added, or var­ious col­or­ing mat­ters stirred in to give the soap a var­ie­gat­ed ap­pear­ance. The an­cient Greeks and He­brews ap­pear to have been ac­quaint­ed with the art of mak­ing soap, or a com­po­si­tion very sim­ilar to it; and al­so the an­cient Gauls and Ger­mans. A soap-​boil­er's shop, with soap in it, was found in the city of Pom­peii, in Italy, which was over­whelmed by an erup­tion of Mount Vesu­vius, A.D. 79.

What is So­da?

So­da, or bar­il­la, is ob­tained from the ash­es of ma­rine plants, and by the de­com­po­si­tion of com­mon salt; its great de­pos­ito­ry is the ocean, so­da be­ing the ba­sis of salt. The ma­rine plants from which the so­da is ob­tained, are en­dowed with the prop­er­ty of de­com­pos­ing the sea-​salt which they im­bibe, and of ab­sorb­ing the so­da which it con­tains. It is found na­tive in Egypt, and is there called _na­tron_; a name sim­ilar to that which it bore among the Jews and Greeks.

_De­pos­ito­ry_, store-​house, place where any­thing is lodged.

_Im­bibe_, to drink in, to ab­sorb.

Of what are Can­dles made?

Of Tal­low, which means an­imal fat melt­ed and clar­ified, that is, cleansed or pu­ri­fied from filth. Tal­low is pro­cured from many an­imals, but the most es­teemed, and the most used, is that made from ox­en, sheep, swine, goats, deer, bears, &c.; some of which tal­lows or fats are used in medicine, some in mak­ing soap, and dress­ing leather; oth­ers in the man­ufac­ture of can­dles, &c. For the last-​men­tioned ar­ti­cle, that of sheep and ox­en is most used; can­dles of a bet­ter sort are like­wise made of wax and sper­ma­ceti. Can­dles are kept burn­ing by means of a wick of cot­ton or rush, placed in the cen­tre of the tal­low, which is mould­ed in­to a cylin­dri­cal form.

_Cylin­dri­cal_, hav­ing the form of a cylin­der.

Is there not a tree which yields a veg­etable Tal­low?

Yes; Chi­na pos­sess­es a tree pro­duc­ing a sub­stance like our tal­low, of which the Chi­nese make their can­dles; this tal­low is ex­tract­ed from the stone of the fruit, the tal­low be­ing a white pulp which sur­rounds it. In Amer­ica, like­wise, there is a shrub, a na­tive of the tem­per­ate parts, es­pe­cial­ly to­wards the sea-​side, the seeds of which con­tain a waxy sub­stance used for the same pur­pose, and which is ex­tract­ed by boil­ing; this shrub is a species of myr­tle, and does not at­tain to any great size.

_Ex­tract­ed_, drawn from.

What is Sper­ma­ceti?

A whitish, flaky, unc­tu­ous sub­stance, pre­pared from an oil of the same name, drawn from a par­tic­ular kind of whale, dis­tin­guished from the com­mon whale by hav­ing teeth, and a hunch on its back.

_Flaky_, hav­ing the na­ture of flakes.

What is Wax?

A soft, yel­low, con­crete mat­ter, col­lect­ed from veg­eta­bles by the bee, of which this in­dus­tri­ous and use­ful in­sect con­structs its cell. Wax forms a con­sid­er­able ar­ti­cle of trade; it is of two kinds, the yel­low and the white; the yel­low is the na­tive wax as it is tak­en from the hive, and the white is the same washed, pu­ri­fied, and ex­posed to the air.

_Con­crete_, grown to­geth­er, sol­id.

What Tree pro­duces the beau­ti­ful and well-​known wood so much used in mak­ing the var­ious ar­ti­cles of house­hold fur­ni­ture?

The Ma­hogany Tree, grow­ing in Amer­ica, and the East and West In­dies; it fre­quent­ly grows in the crevices of rocks, and oth­er places of the same de­scrip­tion. This wood was not used for mak­ing fur­ni­ture till near the end of the sev­en­teenth cen­tu­ry. A Lon­don physi­cian had a broth­er, the cap­tain of a West In­dia ship, who, on his re­turn to Eng­land, hav­ing on board sev­er­al logs of ma­hogany for the pur­pose of bal­last, made him a present of the wood, he be­ing en­gaged in a build­ing project; his car­pen­ter, how­ev­er, threw it aside, ob­serv­ing that it was too hard to be wrought. Some time af­ter, the la­dy of the physi­cian be­ing in want of a box to hold can­dles, the cab­inet-​mak­er was di­rect­ed to make it of this wood; he al­so made the same ob­jec­tion, and de­clared that it spoiled his tools. Be­ing urged, how­ev­er, to make an­oth­er tri­al, he at length suc­ceed­ed; when the box was pol­ished, the beau­ti­ful col­or of the wood was so nov­el, that it be­came an ob­ject of great cu­rios­ity. Be­fore this time, ma­hogany had been used par­tial­ly in the West In­dies for ship-​build­ing, but this new dis­cov­ery of its beau­ty soon brought it in­to gen­er­al use for mak­ing fur­ni­ture.

_Crevice_, a rent, a crack.

_Bal­last_, the heavy mat­ter placed in the hold of a ves­sel to keep it steady.

What is In­dia Rub­ber or Caoutchouc?

An elas­tic, resinous sub­stance, pro­duced from a tree, grow­ing abun­dant­ly at Cayenne, Quito, and oth­er parts of South Amer­ica; and al­so in some parts of the In­dies. The tree which pro­duces it is large, straight, and about six­ty feet high. There is, how­ev­er, a small species found in Suma­tra and Ja­va, and some of the neigh­bor­ing is­lands.

How is the Caoutchouc ob­tained from the Tree?

By mak­ing in­ci­sions in the trunk of the tree, from which the flu­id resin is­sues in great abun­dance, ap­pear­ing of a milky white­ness at first, but grad­ual­ly be­com­ing of a dark red­dish col­or, soft and elas­tic to the touch.

To what use is this sub­stance put?

The In­di­ans make of it boots, shoes, bot­tles, flam­beaux, and a species of cloth. Amongst us it is com­bined with sul­phur, form­ing the vul­can­ized rub­ber of com­merce, which is used for many pur­pos­es. A greater pro­por­tion of sul­phur, pro­duces vul­can­ite, a hard black sub­stance, re­sem­bling jet.

_Flam­beaux_, torch­es burnt to give light.

What is Sponge?

A ma­rine sub­stance, found ad­her­ing to rocks and shells un­der the sea-​wa­ter, or on the sides of rocks near the shore. Sponge was for­mer­ly imag­ined by some nat­ural­ists to be a veg­etable pro­duc­tion; by oth­ers, a min­er­al, or a col­lec­tion of sea-​mud, but it has since been dis­cov­ered to be the fab­ric and habi­ta­tion of a species of worm, or poly­pus.

What do you mean by Poly­pus?

A species of an­imals called Zoophytes, by which are meant be­ings hav­ing such an ad­mix­ture of the char­ac­ter­is­tics of both plants and an­imals, as to ren­der it dif­fi­cult to de­cide to which di­vi­sion they prop­er­ly be­long. They are an­imal in sub­stance, pos­sessed in­deed of a stom­ach, but with­out the oth­er an­imal char­ac­ter­is­tics of blood-​ves­sels, bones, or or­gans of sense; these crea­tures live chiefly in wa­ter, and are most­ly in­ca­pable of mo­tion: they in­crease by buds or ex­cres­cences from the par­ent zoophyte, and if cut off will grow again and mul­ti­ply; each part be­com­ing a per­fect an­imal. Myr­iads of the dif­fer­ent species of zoophytes re­side in small cells of coral, sponge, &c., or in forms like plants, and mul­ti­ply in such num­bers as to cre­ate rocks and whole is­lands in many seas, by their un­tir­ing in­dus­try. Poly­pus sig­ni­fies hav­ing many feet, or roots; it is de­rived from the Greek.

_Myr­iads_, count­less num­bers.

Whence are the best and great­est num­ber of Sponges brought?

From the Mediter­ranean, es­pe­cial­ly from Nicaria, an is­land near the coast of Asia: the col­lec­tion of sponges forms, in some of these is­lands, the prin­ci­pal sup­port of their in­hab­itants. They are pro­cured by div­ing un­der wa­ter, an ex­er­cise in which both men, wom­en, and chil­dren are skilled from their ear­li­est years. The fine, small sponges are es­teemed the best, and usu­al­ly come from Con­stantino­ple; the larg­er and coars­er sorts are brought from Tu­nis and Al­giers, on the coast of Africa. Sponge is very use­ful in the arts, as well as for do­mes­tic pur­pos­es.

What is Coral?

A sub­stance which, like sponge, was con­sid­ered as a veg­etable pro­duc­tion, un­til about the year 1720, when a French gen­tle­man of Mar­seilles com­menced (and con­tin­ued for thir­ty years,) a se­ries of ob­ser­va­tions, and as­cer­tained that the coral was a liv­ing an­imal of the Poly­pus tribe. The gen­er­al name of zoophytes, or plant an­imals, has since been ap­plied to them. These an­imals are fur­nished with minute glands, se­cret­ing a milky juice; this juice, when ex­ud­ed from the an­imal, be­comes fixed and hard.

_Se­ries_, a course or con­tin­ued suc­ces­sion.

_Glands_, ves­sels.

_Ex­ud­ed_, from ex­ude, to flow out.

Is this sub­stance con­sid­ered by nat­ural­ists as the habi­ta­tion of the In­sect?

Not mere­ly as the habi­ta­tion, but as a part of the an­imal it­self, in the same man­ner that the shell of a snail or an oys­ter is of those an­imals, and with­out which they can­not long ex­ist. By means of this juice or se­cre­tion, the coral in­sects, at a vast but un­known depth be­low the sur­face of the sea, at­tach them­selves to the points and ridges of rocks, which form the bot­tom of the ocean; up­on which foun­da­tion the lit­tle ar­chi­tects la­bor, build­ing up, by the aid of the above-​men­tioned se­cre­tion, pile up­on pile of their rocky habi­ta­tions, un­til at length the work ris­es above the sea, and is con­tin­ued to such a height as to leave it al­most dry, when the in­sects leave build­ing on that part, and be­gin afresh in an­oth­er di­rec­tion un­der the wa­ter. Huge mass­es of rocky sub­stances are thus raised by this won­der­ful lit­tle in­sect, ca­pa­ble of re­sist­ing the tremen­dous pow­er of the ocean when ag­itat­ed to the high­est pitch by winds or tem­pests.

_Ar­chi­tect_, one who builds.

How do these Coral Rocks be­come Is­lands?

Af­ter the for­ma­tion of this sol­id, rocky base, sea-​shells, frag­ments of coral, and sea-​sand, thrown up by each re­turn­ing tide, are bro­ken and mixed to­geth­er by the ac­tion of the waves; these, in time, be­come a sort of stone, and thus raise the sur­face high­er and high­er; mean­while, the ev­er-​ac­tive surf con­tin­ues to throw up the shells of ma­rine an­imals and oth­er sub­stances, which fill up the crevices be­tween the stones; the undis­turbed sand on its sur­face of­fers to the seeds of trees and plants cast up­on it by the waves, a soil up­on which they rapid­ly grow and over­shad­ow the daz­zling white­ness of the new-​formed land. Trunks of trees, washed in­to the sea by the rivers from oth­er coun­tries and is­lands, here find a rest­ing-​place, and with these come some small an­imals, chiefly of the lizard and in­sect tribe. Even be­fore the trees form a wood, the sea-​birds nes­tle among their branch­es, and the stray land-​bird soon takes refuge in the bush­es. At last, man ar­rives and builds his hut up­on the fruit­ful soil formed by the cor­rup­tion of the veg­eta­tion, and calls him­self lord and mas­ter of this new cre­ation.

_Surf_, the white spray or froth of the sea waves.

Where is the Coral In­sect found?

In near­ly all great seas; but par­tic­ular­ly in the Mediter­ranean, where it pro­duces Corallines of the most beau­ti­ful forms and col­ors: it is in the Pa­cif­ic Ocean, how­ev­er, where these tiny work­men are ef­fect­ing those mighty changes, which ex­ceed the most won­der­ful works of man.

What is that part of the Pa­cif­ic called, where the Coral Rocks are most abun­dant?

The Coral Sea, from the num­ber of coral reefs and sunken is­lands, with which it abounds; it in­cludes a re­gion of many miles in ex­tent, the whole of which is stud­ded with num­ber­less reefs, rocks, is­lands, and columns of coral, con­tin­ual­ly join­ing and ad­vanc­ing to­wards each oth­er. All nav­iga­tors who have vis­it­ed these seas, state that no charts or maps are of any ser­vice af­ter a few years, ow­ing to the num­ber of fresh rocks and reefs which are con­tin­ual­ly ris­ing to the sur­face. The won­der­ful in­stinct of these an­imals leads them to con­tin­ue work­ing with­out ceas­ing, un­til their labors are fin­ished, or their lives ex­tinct.

_Reef_, a chain or line of rocks ly­ing near the sur­face of the wa­ter.

_Ex­tinct_, at an end, dead.

What are the names of the prin­ci­pal is­lands of Coral for­ma­tion?

The New He­brides, the Friend­ly Isles, the Nav­iga­tor's Isles, the So­ci­ety Is­lands, the Mar­que­sas, the Gam­bier group, and oth­ers. These groups are sep­arat­ed from each oth­er by chan­nels or seas, wider than those which di­vide the in­di­vid­ual is­lands which form the re­spec­tive groups; but all these wa­ters abound with shoals and mi­nor islets, which point out the ex­is­tence of a com­mon base, and show that the work by which they will af­ter­wards be unit­ed above the lev­el of the sea is con­tin­ual­ly go­ing for­ward.

_Shoals_, shal­lows; places where the wa­ter is of lit­tle depth.

_Mi­nor_, less, small­er than oth­ers.

_Ex­is­tence_, be­ing.

What is a sin­gu­lar char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Coral Is­lands?

On all of them a plen­ti­ful sup­ply of sweet and fresh wa­ter may be ob­tained by dig­ging three or four feet in­to the coral; and even with­in one yard of high-​wa­ter mark such a sup­ply is to be found. They are most­ly cov­ered with a deep rich soil, and well wood­ed with trees and ev­er­greens of dif­fer­ent kinds. These is­lands vary in ex­tent, as well as in the de­gree of fin­ish to which they have ar­rived; some of the largest be­ing about 30 miles in di­am­eter, and the small­est some­thing less than a mile;--all of var­ious shapes, and all formed of liv­ing coral.

_Di­am­eter_, a straight line through the mid­dle of a cir­cle.

Is Coral put to any use by man?

White Coral, which is nowhere so abun­dant as about the shores of Cey­lon, and oth­ers of the neigh­bor­ing In­di­an coasts, is em­ployed as lime by the in­hab­itants of that part of the world, for build­ing hous­es, &c., by burn­ing it af­ter the man­ner of our lime. This coral lies in vast banks, which are un­cov­ered at low wa­ter. Coral, par­tic­ular­ly the beau­ti­ful red sort, is like­wise made in­to var­ious or­na­ments, as neck­laces, &c.

Of what is our Lime com­posed?

Of a use­ful earth, which ab­sorbs mois­ture and car­bon­ic acid, and ex­ists as lime­stone, or in mar­ble and chalk, which, when burnt, be­come lime: in its na­tive state it is called car­bon­ate of lime, and is burnt to dis­en­gage the car­bon­ic acid; when made in­to a paste, with one part wa­ter and three parts lime,[13] and mixed with some oth­er min­er­al or metal­lic sub­stances, it forms plas­tic ce­ments and mor­tars; and af­ter­wards, im­bib­ing car­bon­ic acid from the at­mo­sphere, it be­comes again car­bon­ate of lime, as hard as at first; and hence its use in build­ing.

[Foot­note 13: See Chap­ter XVI., ar­ti­cle Lime.]

_Plas­tic_, yield­ing, ca­pa­ble of be­ing spread out or mould­ed.

What do you mean by Car­bon?

A sim­ple sub­stance, whose most com­mon form is pu­ri­fied char­coal: it is, in fact, the base of char­coal, di­vest­ed of all im­pu­ri­ties; com­bined with oxy­gen, it forms _car­bon­ic acid_ gas, for­mer­ly called fixed air. It is dif­fused through all an­imal and veg­etable bod­ies; and may be ob­tained by ex­pos­ing them to a red heat. In its pure, crys­tal­lized state, it con­sti­tutes the di­amond, and as graphite, is used in mak­ing the so-​called lead-​pen­cils.[14]

[Foot­note 14: See Chap­ter XIV., ar­ti­cle Di­amond.]

What is Oxy­gen?

Air, men­tioned in the first chap­ter of this work as the gaseous sub­stance which com­pos­es the at­mo­sphere, is formed by a mix­ture of two dis­tinct el­ements, one called Ni­tro­gen, or Azote, the oth­er Oxy­gen. Oxy­gen is, there­fore, an el­ement or sim­ple sub­stance dif­fused gen­er­al­ly through na­ture, and its dif­fer­ent com­bi­na­tions are es­sen­tial to an­imal life and com­bus­tion. It is, in fact, the most ac­tive agent in na­ture, and the prin­ci­ple of acid­ity and com­bus­tion. So whole­some and nec­es­sary is oxy­gen to life, that it is of­ten called vi­tal air.

_Agent_, an ac­tor; a per­son or thing pos­sess­ing the fac­ul­ty of ac­tion.

_Es­sen­tial_, nec­es­sary.

What are the prop­er­ties of Ni­tro­gen or Azote?

Ni­tro­gen is a sub­stance al­so gen­er­al­ly dif­fused through na­ture, and par­tic­ular­ly in an­imal bod­ies, and caus­es great changes in those ab­sorb­ing or ex­posed to it. This gas, com­bined with oxy­gen and hy­dro­gen, pro­duces nei­ther light, heat, nor com­bus­tion, but serves to di­lute the oth­ers: of it­self, it is hurt­ful to an­imal life. Ni­tro­gen makes the prin­ci­pal part of the salt we call _ni­tre_.

What is meant by Com­bus­tion?

The de­com­po­si­tion of bod­ies by the ac­tion of fire; the union of com­bustible bod­ies with the oxy­gen of the at­mo­sphere. The greater ac­cess the air has to a burn­ing body, the more rapid and com­plete is the pro­cess.

_Com­bustible_, ca­pa­ble of tak­ing fire.

_Ac­cess_, the means or lib­er­ty of ap­proach to any­thing.

Are all bod­ies equal­ly com­bustible?

No; some are more so than oth­ers, and burn with a bright flame; as wood, dry veg­eta­bles, resins, oils, fats, &c.; oth­ers with dif­fi­cul­ty, and with­out any sen­si­ble flame, as soot, coal, the ash­es of plants, &c. There are bod­ies, al­so, which are in­com­bustible--that is, in­ca­pable of tak­ing fire, as some al­ka­lies, earths, &c.

What is Caloric?

Caloric is that in­vis­ible agent which pro­duces the sen­sa­tion of heat. It ex­ists in all bod­ies; it is a force we are ev­er in want of, and thus it is hid in ev­ery­thing around us, and pen­etrates all mat­ter, how­ev­er dif­fer­ent may be its na­ture or prop­er­ties.

What is meant by Gas?

All high­ly elas­tic flu­ids are called gas­es. Some are salu­tary, but many ex­treme­ly nox­ious, es­pe­cial­ly such as those aris­ing from the pu­tre­fac­tion of an­imal bod­ies; the burn­ing of char­coal; cor­rupt­ed air at the bot­tom of mines, cel­lars, &c. The in­flammable gas, which lights our streets, church­es, shops, &c., is pro­cured chiefly from coal, burnt in fur­naces for the pur­pose the gas be­ing passed through met­al pipes, con­veyed un­der­ground to the places where the light is re­quired: es­cap­ing at the ori­fice pre­pared for it, it is light­ed when want­ed, and burns with, a bril­liant flame. This gas con­sists of hy­dro­gen and car­bon; and the oxy­gen of the air, com­bined with the hy­dro­gen, caus­es light as long as hy­dro­gen and oxy­gen ex­ist and com­bine.

_Salu­tary_, whole­some, health­ful.

_Nox­ious_, hurt­ful, un­whole­some.

_Pu­tre­fac­tion_, de­cay.

_Ori­fice_, open­ing, hole.

[Il­lus­tra­tion: DI­AMOND CUT­TING AND POL­ISH­ING.]

What is Hy­dro­gen?

One of the most abun­dant prin­ci­ples in na­ture; one part of it, and eight of oxy­gen, form wa­ter. It is on­ly met with in a gaseous form; it is al­so very in­flammable, and is the gas called the fire-​damp, so of­ten fa­tal to min­ers; it is the chief con­stituent of oils, fats, spir­its, &c.; and is pro­duced by the de­com­po­si­tion of wa­ter.

_Con­stituent_, that which forms an es­sen­tial part of any­thing.

What is Chalk?

A white fos­sil sub­stance, by some reck­oned a stone, but of a fri­able kind, which can­not, there­fore, be pol­ished as mar­ble; by oth­ers, more prop­er­ly ranked among the earths. It is of two sorts, one a hard dry chalk, used for mak­ing lime; the oth­er a soft, unc­tu­ous kind, used in ma­nur­ing land, &c. Chalk al­ways con­tains quan­ti­ties of flint-​stone, and the fos­sil re­mains of shells, coral, an­imal bones, ma­rine plants, &c.; from which cir­cum­stance there can be no doubt that _chalk is the de­posit­ed mud of a for­mer ocean_. The chem­ical name of chalk is car­bon­ate of lime. It ef­fer­vesces strong­ly with an acid.

_Ef­fer­vesce_, to froth or foam up.

_De­posit­ed_, placed on any­thing.

Where is Chalk found?

In large beds or stra­ta in the earth. Chalk, on ac­count of its abun­dance in Eng­land, forms an im­por­tant fea­ture in the scenery and ge­ol­ogy of that coun­try; it caus­es the white­ness of its sea-​cliffs. Scot­land and Wales are en­tire­ly with­out chalk. The white chalk is found, with in­ter­rup­tions, over a space above eleven hun­dred miles long, ex­tend­ing from the north of Ire­land, through Eng­land, France, Bel­gium, Ger­many, Poland, and South­ern Rus­sia, to the Crimea, with a breadth of more than eight hun­dred miles. The Is­land of Crete, now called Can­dia, sit­uat­ed in the Mediter­ranean, was for­mer­ly not­ed for its chalk. This sub­stance is very use­ful in many of the arts and man­ufac­tures.

Where is the Crimea?

The penin­su­la of the Crimea is a part of Rus­sia, ly­ing on the Black Sea, by which it is bound­ed on the west and south.

Are there any oth­er kinds of this earth be­sides the com­mon white chalk?

Yes; there are var­ious kinds of chalk, dis­tin­guished by their dif­fer­ent col­ors, as white, black, red, &c., found in var­ious parts of the world, of great use to the painter, both in oil and wa­ter col­ors, and for draw­ing on pa­per, &c.

What is Mar­ble?

A kind of stone re­mark­able for its hard­ness and firm grain, and for be­ing sus­cep­ti­ble of the finest pol­ish. It is dug in great mass­es from pits or quar­ries; and is much used in or­na­men­tal build­ings, and for stat­ues, al­tars, tombs, chim­ney-​pieces, &c. The word is de­rived from the French _mar­bre_, mar­ble. Mar­ble is sup­posed to be formed, deep with­in the bow­els of the earth, from a loose and porous car­bon­ate of lime, sub­ject­ed to enor­mous heat and pres­sure.

_Sus­cep­ti­ble_, eas­ily ad­mit­ting any­thing ad­di­tion­al.

_Porous_, full of holes, or in­ter­stices.

Are there dif­fer­ent sorts of this Stone?

Mar­bles are of many dif­fer­ent kinds, usu­al­ly named ei­ther from their col­or or coun­try; some of one sim­ple col­or, as white, or black; oth­ers streaked or var­ie­gat­ed with dif­fer­ent col­ors. They are clas­si­fied as an­cient and mod­ern: the an­cient are those found in quar­ries now lost or in­ac­ces­si­ble to us, and of which there are on­ly some wrought pieces re­main­ing;--the mod­ern, those from quar­ries still open, and out of which blocks of mar­ble con­tin­ue to be tak­en.

In what coun­tries is Mar­ble found?

The Unit­ed States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Africa, Egypt, and many oth­er coun­tries, pro­duce mar­bles of dif­fer­ent col­ors and qual­ities; some more beau­ti­ful, valu­able, and more high­ly es­teemed than oth­ers, as those of Egypt, Italy, &c. Those, al­so, of dif­fer­ent places in the same coun­try fre­quent­ly dif­fer from each oth­er in qual­ity and ap­pear­ance Of the Eu­ro­pean mar­bles, that of Italy is the most valu­able.

What kind ap­pears to have been held in the great­est es­teem by the an­cients?

A beau­ti­ful white mar­ble, called the Par­ian; of which the Gre­cian stat­ues were most­ly made. By some, it is sup­posed to have tak­en its name from the Isle of Paros, in the Mediter­ranean; but by oth­ers from Par­ius, a fa­mous stat­uary, who made it cel­ebrat­ed by cut­ting in it a stat­ue of Venus. Par­ian mar­ble is of­ten men­tioned by an­cient au­thors.

_Stat­ues_, fig­ures of men, an­imals, &c., cut in stone or mar­ble.

_Stat­uary_, one who makes stat­ues.

Who was Venus?

The god­dess of love and beau­ty, who was an ob­ject of ado­ra­tion in the idol­atrous ages, when men ig­no­rant­ly knelt down and wor­shipped stocks and stones, which their own hands had fash­ioned af­ter the like­ness of things on the earth, or imag­inary cre­ations of their fan­cy;--or, again, the sun, moon, and stars, in­stead of the one and on­ly true God. In those times, ev­ery na­tion had its pe­cu­liar deities, to whom were paid di­vine rites and hon­ors, and to whose names cost­ly tem­ples were ded­icat­ed: these deities were di­vid­ed in­to two class­es, su­pe­ri­or and in­fe­ri­or. Venus was one of the Gre­cian god­dess­es, sup­posed by them to have sprung from the froth of the sea. Kings and cel­ebrat­ed war­riors, and sages too, af­ter death, fre­quent­ly re­ceived di­vine hon­ors; as Con­fu­cius, the founder of the Chi­nese em­pire, who, af­ter death, was wor­shipped by that peo­ple as a god. Ro­mu­lus, the first king of Rome, like­wise, was thus adored by the Ro­mans; and many sim­ilar in­stances of the same species of idol­atry amongst oth­er na­tions might be record­ed.

_Deities_, fab­ulous gods or god­dess­es.

_Idol­atrous_, giv­en to the wor­ship of idols.

_Su­pe­ri­or_, high­er in rank.

_In­fe­ri­or_, of a low­er rank.

_Sage_, a wise man.