The Northern Iron: A Discourse Delivered in the North Church, Hartford, on the Annual State Fast, April 14, 1854

Excerpt from The Northern Iron: A Discourse Delivered in the North Church, Hartford, on the Annual State Fast, April 14, 1854 Absurd as it may be, there yet are many signs in our time that, for once, it is going to be done. And yet we do not quite despair of the harder metal.
This harder metal, called steel by us, was, in the prophet's day, called indifferently northern iron and steel, [chalybs, ] because it was from the commercial town or city of Chalybs, a port of the Black Sea. Accordingly it became a proverb, so familiarly known was the superior hardness and strength of this metal, that "northern iron is not cut by iron," just as "biting on a file" has become a proverb with us, to indicate the absurdity of attempting to demolish a character without character, or a firm cause by weak arguments.
Of course it is not my design, this morning, to occupy you with a dissertation or lecture on the comparative properties of steel and iron, or on their mutual action one upon the other: these are matters sufficiently well understood. Absurd as it may be, there yet are many signs in our time that, for once, it is going to be done. And yet we do not quite despair of the harder metal.
This harder metal, called steel by us, was, in the prophet's day, called indifferently northern iron and steel, [chalybs, ] because it was from the commercial town or city of Chalybs, a port of the Black Sea. Accordingly it became a proverb, so familiarly known was the superior hardness and strength of this metal, that "northern iron is not cut by iron," just as "biting on a file" has become a proverb with us, to indicate the absurdity of attempting to demolish a character without character, or a firm cause by weak arguments.
Of course it is not my design, this morning, to occupy you with a dissertation or lecture on the comparative properties of steel and iron, or on their mutual action one upon the other: these are matters sufficiently well understood.