The thirst for gold, and a golden country, led you on; and in these scorching regions you have raised the devil on his throne, and worshipped him in his proud pre-eminence as Mammon.
Let us think.

Is not the thirst for gold a temptation to which our natures are doomed to be subjected--part of the ordeal which we have to pass?
or why is it that there never is sufficient?
It appears to be ordained by Providence that this metal, obtained from the earth to feed the avarice of man, should again return to it.

If all the precious ore which for a series of ages has been raised from the dark mine were now in tangible existence, how trifling would be its value! how inadequate as a medium of exchange for the other productions of nature, or of art! If all the diamonds and other precious stones which have been collected from the decomposed rocks (for hard as they once were, like all sublunary matter, they too yield to time) why, if all were remaining on the earth, the frolic gambols of the May-day sweep would shake about those gems, which now are to be found in profusion only where rank and beauty pay homage to the thrones of kings.

Arts and manufactures consume a large proportion of the treasures of the mine, and as the objects fall into decay, so does the metal return to the earth again.

But it is in Eastern climes, where it is collected, that it soonest disappears.