"Find we Lorenzo wiser for his wealth?
What if thy rental I inform, and draw
An inventory new to set thee right?
Where is thy treasure? Gold says, 'Not in me!'
And not in me, the diamond. Gold is poor,
Indies insolvent-. Seek it in thyself,
Seek in thy naked self, and find it there."
GOLD is, in itself, harmless-brilliant, beautiful to look upon; but,
when man entertains an ungovernable, all-absorbing love of it, gold
is his curse and a mill-stone around his neck, drawing him down to
earth. How much sorrow that love has caused! O, there is love that
is angelic! But high and holy as love is when bestowed upon a worthy
object, in like proportion is it base and ignoble when fixed upon
that which is unworthy.
It may well be questioned whether, taking a broad view of the
matter, gold has not produced more evil than good. Point out, if you
can, one crime, be it the most heinous and inhuman of which you can
possibly conceive, that has not been perpetrated for the sake of
gold, or has not its equal in the history of the battle for wealth.
We can conceive of no worse a thing than a human soul idolizing a
mass of shining metal, and counting out, with lean and tremulous
hands, the coined dollars.
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