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DISCOVERY OF GLASS.

I cannot tell you, but the merchants were obliged to continue there for some time; and they dressed their food at a fire kindled on the white, glittering sand, which formed the shore of the river. A plant called kali grew there abundantly, and was of course burned to ashes. These ashes mixing with the bright, hard sand, which was melted by the heat of the fire, produced a substance believed to have been till then unknown, which has since been called GLASS. Such is the account of Pliny: he also says, that the accident becoming known in that country, the people of Sidon, a neighbouring sea-port town of Phoenicia, applied themselves to repeating the experiment, and were successful.

The first glass-houses mentioned in history, were erected at Tyre, another city on the same coast, which was famous in ancient times for its commerce and manufactures; and there the art seems to have been practised for many ages before other countries attempted it.*

Now let us suppose that a party of ignorant

*Ency. Brit. Art. Glass.

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CASE SUPPOSED.

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savages, who had gone out fishing in their canoe, had been driven by a storm into the river, and had kindled a fire on that beach of fine, white sand. Suppose the accident the same in all its circumstances, and the story differing only in the characters of those who witnessed the production of this new substance. But can we think the result would have been the same? That the savages would have reflected upon the subject, or have contrived the means of producing a similar substance at pleasure? To me it seems very unlikely; though I am ready to grant, that one of the most lively and observing of the party might be attracted by the bright appearance of the glass, might take it up, perceive its transparency, and amuse himself by spying through it at the sun, or the countenances of his companions, if indeed the glass were sufficiently transparent, which is not very likely, as the ashes of the burned weed must be mixed with glass produced in that accidental manner. Here, then, would have been an end of the adventure; and the world, in all probability, as

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FIRST EXPERIMENTS.

little benefited as if the circumstance had never happened. But the enlightened Phoenicians did not view the new production with idle wonder. However dark and dingy, or speckled by the mixture of ashes, it might be, they perceived it was something worth thinking about, worth contriving means to free it from these impurities.

Now, if you had been in their place, and seen this curious substance, bright and transparent in some parts, in others opaque and disfigured by dirty particles, would it not have been your wish to obtain from the kali that property, whatever it might be, which had such a marvellous effect on the sand of the beach?

You know that hot water has the power of extracting the virtues of many plants; we see this every day, in making tea and coffee, in brewing beer, and many other instances. I believe the Phoenicians went upon this plan, for they succeeded, and in all probability by the method which is still practised in that country. The kali is cut down in the summer-time, and after being dried in the sun, it is burned; the ashes

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