"This is often said, and is plausible. Admit all you assert, and the question occurs, '_Why should it be so?_' When you say that gold is the most precious of all metals, an article of value in _itself_, as well as the representative of labor, you assert a fact, but you do not _explain_ that fact. Far, far from it. But why should it be so? What _use_ has it been to man, that it should receive this high distinction? Iron, lead, copper--all of these are a million fold more useful than gold--No--reflect a little while. Bend all your thought to the subject. Track the yellow ore through all ages, and at last, you must come to the conclusion, that the value placed upon gold is a superstition, as vast as it is wicked,--a superstition which has crushed more hearts and damned more souls, than all the (so called) _Religious_ superstitions that smear the page of history with blood. That such a superstition exists, would alone convince me of the existence of an embodied Devil, who, perpetually at war with God, does with a direct interference, derange his laws, and crush the hopes of his children." For a moment, he shaded his eyes with his hand, while the Prelate gazed upon him, with something of surprise in his look. "Can you estimate the evils which have flowed from this superstition? No. The reason falters, the imagination shudders: at the very thought you are bewildered,--dumb. But think of it as you will,--entangle yourself among the sophistries which attempt to explain, but in reality only darken it,--view it as a political economist, a banker, a merchant, or a worker in precious metals,--and you only plunge the deeper into the abyss of doubt and bewilderment. You cannot explain this superstition, unless you mount higher, and grasp that great law of God, which says, forever, '_It is wicked for_ ONE MAN _to clothe himself with luxury, at the expense of the sweat and blood of another_ MAN, _who is his Brother_.' Grasp this truth firmly; understand it in all its bearings,--and you discern the source of the Golden superstition; for it had its source, in that depraved idleness which seeks luxury at the expense of human suffering,--which coins enjoyment for a few men, on the immeasurable wretchedness of entire races of mankind. The first man who sought to rob his Brother of the fruits of his labor, and of his place on the earth, was doubtless the inventor of the golden superstition; for turn and twist it as you will, gold is only valuable because it _represents_ labor. All its value springs from that cause. It represents labor already done, and it represents labor that is to be done, and therefore,--therefore only,--is it valuable. And it is the most convenient engine by which the idlers of the World can enslave the laborers--therefore it has always retained its value. Backed by the _delusion_ which fixes upon it a certain value, and makes it more precious than the blood of hearts, or the salvation of the