Gold Not Gold

the power when present, and life when absent,
L.4.223.

Who sees all things, and through whom the earth sees all things,
The eye of the world. --

Plin. nat. hist. l.33.c.3.

Come, let it take first place; I add second, third, for all I care, for the doctors, this our Phœbus Sun/Apollo, light of life. Yet let Phaëton pay the penalty, along with his Pico, and our Pliny, and Sparta, and Spartacus, for not casting out gold, or at least valuing it little: indeed even

Par. param. l.2 c.2.

his own, Paracelsus, to whom all things are of the same value; a carbuncle does not surpass a tufa; a pine is not worse than a cypress; who first
Pen. Lon. tra. 4 rer. Chy.

preferred gold to silver, he did it out of avarice: and Penotus, to whom the Saturn of the Philosophers truly excels the Sun and Moon. But as Antony used gold in all obscene desires, with a shameful crime even for Cleopatra: so according to the censor Pliny, Antony made gold cheap to the shame of nature, a work worthy of proscription. Let Antony interpret these things as he can, and relate them from himself to himself. But as for the Greeks calling metals, not so much because
c. 6. p.

they are accustomed to search them, as if they name them meta ta alla after the others, because wherever one vein is found, another is not far off, as Pliny cleverly deduces: thus I might not inarticulately say met' allon with others, met' allelon with one another, because when brought together with others, and with themselves, each in its own kind is the first metal. But it does not fear the raging flame of fire. What should it hope for, what should it fear, what should it feel, that which is without sense? Let him be without sense who deems it so. Is gold a Martyr, to whom

Prud. perist. hym. 5.

-- the plate hissing in the flames, is it a game, or profit?
Æli. anim. l. 2. c. 31.

or is it like a salamander that fights with fire, and overcomes it?
Indeed (as others speak more chastely)
Ovid. Trist. 1. Met. 2.

-- it is inspected in the fires, --
-- it flows in the fires, --
Plin. nat. hist. l. 33. c. 3.

it is preferred to the others, because nothing of it is lost by fire, while the matter endures in pyres and conflagrations. But this phaidros shining/merry Phaedria, how
Ter. Eun. act. 1 c. 2.

good a spirit is he when he approaches this fire, if he does not tremble and shudder entirely, after he has looked? If you judge the affection from the appearance, behold, look at how it is first darkened by ignition, is there here