The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-08-09

Nv engaged among his rcturts and CruCiblrS
discovered hitherto unknown metal Ii
order 10 test its therapeutiCal qualities, he
gave portions OF it to some hogs and was as
tOnishcd and delighted To find they grew ia
and sleek, as all WCll-bchaycd swine should
Pleased with the result of his experiment
Mynhccr Valentine awaited impaticntly IN
opportunity to try his new discoveryOn some
specimens of the genus homo The deSircC
occasion soon offered. A number Of monk.
had reduced themselves, by iasts and panan
ces purng Lent, to the lowest point of cma
citation. This was BaSils opportunity. He
forthwith administered his new discovery
winch hitherto had been known Us StibiUm
Vtrijla GirtVl II kNcd tie lust m0ak, and
ever after stibUm has been known as aHtiHt0
IHg-that is anti moine or anti.mOnachum, OF
antimonl metal. Referring to this historical
fact, it has been said that type-mctal, cvcl
since anthony has been made an ingredient
in #, has proven as fatal to mOnkishncss OF
all kinds, bigotry, ccClcsiaStiCism, dogma
tism, kingcrait and dcmagogucry, as stibium
was to tho monks whom Basil Valentino
doscd nearly four hundred years ago.
We hope the time will never come wncn
anthony will not be used in the manutac
ture of type, because of the suggestivencss OF
| its name. But for type the gloom of the dark
/ ayes NOulu W DHti hH W. rillSC lIlC lay
when books and paper could be multiplied
indefinitely there has been no question of the
result Of the long war between ignorance
wrong, oppression, intelligence, right and
! liberty What though the monks have died ?
! None ever better deserved canOniZatiOn than
the poor creatures whom Mynhcer Valentine
Iunwittingly killed Their deaths marked an
epoch, and IA monument of type,mctal should
be erected to them. But for typemctal,
monks would still be the book makers Of the
world. And not content with painfully copy
| ing the tedious and proliX dissertations Of the
Fathers, the unending disquisitions on Arian-
ism and Athanasian creed, worse than the
Goths, they eXpunged from parchment price
less remnants of the classic literature of
Greece, TO write thereon their inane and stu
pid adumbratons of the infallibility of the
Pope, the potency of indulgences, and the
miraculous virtue of relics and images. If
some Basil Valentine had administered anti
mony to the founders OF the whole system of
'monasticism, the world would not have to
mourn over the slow and deliberate murder
of Grecian literature and Arabian learning
by the monks of the dark ages. To have en-.
tered upon its career by sending few wretch
ed representatives, OF bigotry to purgatOry was
Il glorious commencement of lis history by
one metal, which, after ALL has a record not
less noble than that of some other metals in
dispensable to useful arts and civilized life.
Our scientists are discovering new metals
constantly. BY the aid of that wonderful in
strument, the solar spcCtroscOpe, they have
found in the sun metals not known to exist
before and yet more wonderful, have been
enabled to predict the existence of Il metal
not yet discovered, by the lines of the spec
trum, Just as Leyerrier predicted the existence
of great planet not yet discovered, by per
turbations in one well known. There is no
guessing where science may not lead when il
makes US miners of the sun and matallurgistS
of the planets Possibly some new metal
may be discovered which will yet vastly i'm
prove types and printing processes. Posi-
bly from the sun the source of light, may
yet come hints of a new agent which may H.
luminc our darkened nature as it never yet
has been, and make the MONDAY of our civ
iliZation but as the dawn of that radiant
cffulgencc of the oftcrtimc. Who knows?
OMEN sdJeE
Meanwhile we stick to anthony with rev
crence. 1t has gone on aiding tn the annihi
latiOn of monks until it has well-ni Oh cXtin
guished the order; so that old, dccrepit
monk ridden Spain, amid the ruins of her
clOstcrs and her converts, holds up her head
and is glad. Whenever we hear of new
book being put into the Iudcr Erpurgat0rip.
of newspaper being warned or suppressed
by imperial power, of schools being forbid
den or closed, and schoOl.books burned, we
cannot but say in view OF the past "A little
more antimony. o, shade of Basil Nalcn-
tine, bestir myself
Anthony, which for long time, has been
found in Hungary, France, and Switzerland,
has also been found in Lower California 1t
would have seemed most unfortunate if, in
the great domain OF this vast country, rot
particle OF this much needed metal had exist
ed 1t is great satisfaction to know that we
have had il all the time, though we did not
know it which, in fact, was the case with
many other blessings our lIuguenOt and Pu-
ritan ancestors found, but not until they were
driven to hunt for them. We have the glorl-
Gus assurance that we have enough anthony
at home To kill all the monks, whether in re-
ligion, science or politics, which Italy, or the
outside world, may ever send us; and the
further more glariOuS hope that among the
new mctals--itrium, thallium, iridium, or
something clsc-thcrc may he another agent
and champion of religious and intellectual
liberty whose prowcsS and tcatS may he to
those of antimOny, among the monks, us those
of the full grown giant beside the feeble striv-
ingS of the immature boy.-Chtrdgo Specimen.