L. Why, you never can beat Lily in a race on the stairs, can you, Isabel?

Isabel (panting).  Lily—­beat me—­ever so far—­but she gave me—­the box—­to carry in.

L. Take off the lid, then; gently.

Florrie (after peeping in, disappointed).  There’s only a great ugly brown stone!

L. Not much more than that, certainly, Florrie, if people were wise.  But look, it is not a single stone; but a knot of pebbles fastened together by gravel:  and in the gravel, or compressed sand, if you look close, you will see grains of gold glittering everywhere, all through; and then, do you see these two white beads, which shine, as if they had been covered with grease?

Florrie.  May I touch them?

L. Yes; you will find they are not greasy, only very smooth.  Well, those are the fatal jewels; native here in their dust with gold, so that you may see, cradled here together, the two great enemies of mankind,—­the strongest of all malignant physical powers that have tormented our race.

Sibyl.  Is that really so?  I know they do great harm; but do they not also do great good?

L. My dear child, what good?  Was any woman, do you suppose, ever the better for possessing diamonds? but how many have been made base, frivolous, and miserable by desiring them?  Was ever man the better for having coffers full of gold?  But who shall measure the guilt that is incurred to fill them?  Look into the history of any civilized nations; analyze, with reference to this one cause of crime and misery, the lives and thoughts of their nobles, priests, merchants, and men of luxurious life.  Every other temptation is at last concentrated into this:  pride, and lust, and envy, and anger all give up their strength to avarice.  The sin of the whole world is essentially the sin of Judas.  Men do not disbelieve their Christ; but they sell Him.

Sibyl.  But surely that is the fault of human nature? it is not caused by the accident, as it were, of there being a pretty metal, like gold, to be found by digging.  If people could not find that, would they not find something else, and quarrel for it instead?

L. No.  Wherever legislators have succeeded in excluding, for a time, jewels and precious metals from among national possessions, the national spirit has remained healthy.  Covetousness is not natural to man—­generosity is; but covetousness must be excited by a special cause, as a given disease by a given miasma; and the essential nature of a material for the excitement of covetousness is, that it shall be a beautiful thing which can be retained without a use.  The moment we can use our possessions to any good purpose ourselves, the instinct of communicating that use to others rises side by side with our power.  If you can read a book rightly, you will want others to hear it; if you can enjoy a picture rightly, you will want others to see it:  learn how to manage a horse, a plough, or a ship, and you will desire to make your subordinates good horsemen, ploughmen, or sailors; you will never be able to see the fine instrument you are master of, abused; but, once fix your desire on anything useless, and all the purest pride and folly in your heart will mix with the desire, and make you at last wholly inhuman, a mere ugly lump of stomach and suckers, like a cuttle-fish.