Knowledge and Gold

9. Knowledge and Gold.

We hear much, at present, of the veins of gold which are brought to light in almost every latitude of either hemisphere. But I care not what mines are opened in the North or in the South; in the mountains of Siberia or the Sierras of California; wheresoever the fountains of the golden tide may gush forth, the streams will flow to the regions where educated intellect has woven the boundless network of the useful and ornamental arts. It matters not if this new Pactolus flow through a region which stretches for furlongs,—a wide tract of solid gold,—the jewels and the ingots will find their way to the great centers of civilization, where cultivated mind gives birth to the arts, and freedom renders property secure.

Edw. Everett, Mass., 1794-1805.