Chap. 2.] GOLD. 69 



signs could be any other than expressions of the indignation 

 felt by our sacred parent ! "We penetrate into her entrails, and 

 seek for treasures in the abodes even of the Manes,** as though 

 each spot we tread upon were not sufficiently bounteous and 

 fertile for us ! 



And yet, amid all this, we are far from making remedies the 

 object of our researches : and how few in thus delving into the 

 earth have in view the promotion of medicinal knowledge ! For 

 it is upon her surface, in fact, that she has presented us with 

 these substances, equally with the cereals, bounteous and ever 

 ready, as she is, in supplying us with all things for our benefit ! 

 It is what is concealed from our view, what is sunk far be- 

 neath her surface, objects, in fact, of no rapid formation,^ that 

 urge us to our ruin, that send us to the very depths of hell. 

 As the mind ranges in vague speculation, let us onlj^ consider, 

 proceeding through all ages, as these operations are, when will 

 be the end of thus exhausting the earth, and to what point 

 will avarice finally penetrate I How innocent, how happy, how 

 truly delightful even would life be, if we were to desire no- 

 thing but what is to be found upon the face of the earth ; in a 

 word, nothing but what is provided ready to our hands I 



CHAT. 2. GOLD, 



Gold is dug out of the earth, and, in close proximity to it, 

 chrysocolla,^ a substance which, that it may appear all the 

 more precious, still retains the name' which it has borrowed 

 from gold.^ It was not enough for us to have discovered one 

 bane for the human race, but we must set a value too upon the 

 very humours of gold.^ While avarice, too, was on the search 



*• Or shades below, ^ a jUa quae non nascuntur repenle." 



6 •' Chrysocolla" is fully described in Chapter 26 of this Book. — B. 



'' Meaning "gold glue," or "gold solder." 



8 There is considerable variation in the text of this passage, as found in 

 the different editions. In that of Dalechamps, the Variorum, and those of 

 De Laet and Sillig, the sentence concludes v/ith the words " nonaen ex auro 

 custodiens ;" while in those of Valpy, Lemaire, Poinsinet, Ajasson, and 

 others, we find substituted for them the words, "Non natura," " Nomen 

 natura," " Nomine natura," or "Nomen naturara." — B. The first reading 

 is warranted by the Bamberg MS. 



^ " Auri sanies." More properly speaking, '• the corrupt matter dis- 

 charged by gold." See Chapter 26. 



