To save ; to ruin ; to curse ; to bless ;
As even its minted coins express ;
Now stamp'd with the image of good Queen Bess,
And now of a Bloody Mary ! "
The
largest lump of Gold in the world was discovered by Mr. Richard Oates,
who, together with his companion, John Deason, found the celebrated "
Welcome Stranger " nugget, at Mohagul, Victoria, on February 5th, 1869.
It contained 2,516 ounces of pure Gold ; and was valued at £9,582. It
rested upon stiff red clay, and was barely covered with earth ; in
fact, it was in the rut made by the puddlers' carts. It measured
twenty-one inches in length ; and ten inches in thickness. The lucky
finders detached, and gave to their friends, a number of pieces of gold
from the nugget before it got into the hands of the bank managers.
Of
the Three Wise Men who brought precious gifts from the East as
offerings at the Nativity of the Infant Christ, it was Balthazar who
bore Gold: giving thenceforth to that superlative metal increased
remedial virtues.
" Jasper fert Myrrham ; Thus Melchior ; Balthazar Aurum ;
Hsc quicunque secum portat tria nomina Regum
Solvitur in morbo, Domini pietate, caduco."
" For all manner of falling evils " (epilepsy), as is directed in The Pathivay to Health, "
take blood from the little finger of the sick man, and write therewith
the above lines ; to be thenceforth worn as an amulet round the neck ;
and it shall help the party so grieved."
In Southey's Commonplace Book, fourth series, is given an extract from Augustin St. John's Journal in Normandy, to the effect that " Branstome's uncle, Chastaigneraye, as soon as he was weaned, his father,
