LITTLE King by his alchemist friends and found a large alloy 

 JOURNEYS of tin, copper and zinc. He explained to the King that 



by mixing the metals they did not change their nature 

 nor value. Gold was gold, and copper was copper God 

 had made these things and hid them in the earth and 

 men might deceive some men a part of the time 

 but there was always a retribution. Debase your cur- 

 rency, and soon it will cease to pass current. 

 No law can long uphold a factitious value. 

 The King urged Copernicus to write a book on the sub- 

 ject of coinage. The permission of the Pope was se- 

 cured, and the book written. The work is valuable yet, 

 and reveals a deep insight into the heart of things. The 

 man knew political economy, and foretold that a peo- 

 ple who debased their currency debased themselves. 

 "Money is character," he said, "and if you pretend it 

 is one thing, and it turns out to be another, you lose 

 your reputation and your own self-respect. No govern- 

 ment can afford to deceive the governed. If the people 

 lose confidence in their rulers, a new government will 

 spring into being, built upon the ruins of the old. Gov- 

 ernment and commerce are built on confidence." 

 Then he went on to show that German gold was val- 

 uable everywhere, because it was pure, but Polish gold 

 and Russian gold were below par because the money 

 had been tampered with, and as no secrets could be kept 

 long, the result was, the matter exactly equalized it- 

 self, save that Russians and Polanders had in a degree 

 lost their characters through belief in miracles. 

 Copernicus advocated a universal coinage, to be 

 24 



