AURUM.
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fested in its name, derived from Our and Or, words
denoting in many ancient languages the light of day ; the earliest
synonym for life and all that is to be desired. Some of the ancients
had perceived this, though Pliny dismisses their explanation somewhat
contemptuously with " manifesto errore eorum qui colorerà siderum in
auro placuisse arbitrante." The golden nugget, glittering amongst the
pebbles of the stream, caught the eye of primitive man, who saw in it
the image of the sun, the oldest object of worship, and of whom gold
has ever since continued the symbol. Nay moTe, the Sun-god gave his own
name Elector, with the Greeks, to native-gold as well as to Amber (elec-trum), and, in return, the Indian Sorte, '
gold,' is the parent of the Teutonic ' Sonne.' Besides its beauty, its
ductility was another recommendation ; the savage, though unacquainted
with metallurgy, readily beat the pure ore into circlets to adorn his
limbs : for this and copper are the only metals capable of being
utilised by man in the first stage of civilization.
The
rarity of Gold is far from accounting, as some would have it, for its
universal estimation. Amongst the primitive Celts of the Bronze Age,
or the Mexicans when discovered by Cortez, iron must have been
infinitety more novel and more rare, yet did it not on that account
diminish in the least degree the ancient veneration for gold. And
modern times are not wanting in similar analogies ; platinum in the
last century did not supplant gold either in the mint or in the
jeweller's shop, though superior in those three great constituents of
value—weight, ductility, and indestructibility,—besides being then of
an equal intrinsic worth ; neither in our own days did aluminum, though
so highly recommended by its novel beauty of colour, perfect purity,
and, at the first, extreme costliness. Earity alone does not constitute
value ; amongst the
