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| Gold and Silver Not Superior in Origin or in Utility to Other Metals.
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Chapter V.—Gold and
Silver Not Superior in Origin or in Utility to Other Metals.
Gold and silver, the principal material causes of
worldly117
splendour, must necessarily be identical (in
nature) with that out of which they have their being: (they must
be) earth, that is; (which earth itself is) plainly more glorious (than
they), inasmuch as it is only after it has been tearfully wrought by
penal labour in the deadly laboratories of accursed mines, and there
left its name of “earth” in the fire behind it, that, as a
fugitive from the mine, it passes from torments to ornaments, from
punishments to embellishments, from ignominies to honours. But
iron, and brass, and other the vilest material substances, enjoy a
parity of condition (with silver and gold), both as to earthly origin
and metallurgic operation; in order that, in the estimation of nature,
the substance of gold and of silver may be judged not a whit more noble
(than theirs). But if it is from the quality of utility
that gold and silver derive their glory, why, iron and brass excel
them; whose usefulness is so disposed (by the Creator), that they not
only discharge functions of their own more numerous and more necessary
to human affairs, but do also none the less serve the turn of gold and
silver, by dint of their own powers,118
| 118 De suo. Comp.
de Bapt., c. xvii. sub fin. | in the service
of juster causes. For not only are rings made of iron, but the
memory of antiquity still preserves (the fame of) certain vessels for
eating and drinking made out of brass. Let the insane
plenteousness of gold and silver look to it, if it serves to make
utensils even for foul purposes. At all events, neither is the
field tilled by means of gold, nor the ship fastened together by the
strength of silver. No mattock plunges a golden edge into the
ground; no nail drives a silver point into planks. I leave
unnoticed the fact that the needs of our whole life are dependent upon
iron and brass; whereas those rich materials themselves, requiring both
to be dug up out of mines, and needing a forging process in every use
(to which they are put), are helpless without the laborious vigour of
iron and brass. Already, therefore, we must judge whence it is
that so high dignity accrues to gold and silver, since they get
precedence over material substances which are not only cousin-german to
them in point of origin, but more powerful in point of
usefulness.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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