Where the despot reigns, and the knowledge of an individual's wealth is sufficient warranty to seal his doom, it is to the care of the silent earth alone that the possessor will commit his treasures; he trusts not to relation or to friend, for gold is too powerful for human ties.

It is but on his death-bed that he imparts the secret of his deposit to those he leaves behind him; often called away before he has time to make it known, reserving the fond secret till too late; still clinging to life, and all that makes life dear to him.

Often does the communication, made from the couch of death, in half-articulated words, prove so imperfect, that the knowledge of its existence is of no avail unto his intended heirs; and thus it is that millions return again to the earth from which they have been gathered with such toil.

What avarice has dug up avarice buries again; perhaps in future ages to be regained by labour, when, from the chemical powers of eternal and mysterious Nature, they have again been filtered through the indurated earth, and reassumed the form and the appearance of the metal which has lain in darkness since the creation of the world.
Is not this part of the grand principle of the universe ?--the eternal cycle of reproduction and decay, pervading all and every thing--blindly contributed to by the folly and wickedness of man! "So far shalt thou go, but no further," was the fiat; and, arrived at the prescribed limit, we must commence again.

At this moment intellect has seized upon the seven-league boots of the fable, which fitted everybody who drew them on, and strides over the universe.