we are to confine ourselves to the narrow boundaries of their knowledge, or their inventive skill, or their theological beliefs.  The trouble is that so many seem to regard government as a divine something which has fallen down upon us out of heaven, and therefore not to be improved upon or even criticised; while the truth is, it is simply a human device to secure human happiness, and in itself has no more sacredness than a wheelbarrow or a cooking-pot.  The end of everything earthly is the good of man; and there is nothing sacred on earth but man, because he alone shares the Divine conscience.”

“But,” said he, “would not your paper money have to be redeemed in gold or silver?”

“Not necessarily,” I replied.  “The adoration of gold and silver is a superstition of which the bankers are the high priests and mankind the victims.  Those metals are of themselves of little value.  What should make them so?”

“Are they not the rarest and most valuable productions of the world?” said Maximilian.

“By no means,” I replied; “there are many metals that exceed them in rarity and value.  While a kilogram of gold is worth about $730 and one of silver about $43.50, the same weight of iridium (the heaviest body known) costs $2,400; one of palladium, $3,075; one of calcium nearly $10,000; one of stibidium, $20,000; while vanadium, the true ‘king of metals,’ is worth $25,000 per kilogram, as against $730 for gold or $43.50 for silver.”

“Why, then, are they used as money?” he asked.

“Who can tell?  The practice dates back to prehistoric ages.  Man always accepts as right anything that is in existence when he is born.”

“But are they not more beautiful than other metals?  And are they not used as money because acids will not corrode them?”

“No,” I replied; “some of the other metals exceed them in beauty.  The diamond far surpasses them in both beauty and value, and glass resists the action of acids better than either of them.”

“What do you propose?” he asked.

“Gold and silver,” I said, “are the bases of the world’s currency.  If they are abundant, all forms of paper money are abundant.  If they are scarce, the paper money must shrink in proportion to the shrinkage of its foundation; if not, there come panics and convulsions, in the effort to make one dollar of gold pay three, six or ten of paper.  For one hundred and fifty years the production of gold and silver has been steadily shrinking, while the population and business of the world have been rapidly increasing.

“Take a child a few years old; let a blacksmith weld around his waist an iron band.  At first it causes him little inconvenience.  He plays.  As he grows older it becomes tighter; it causes him pain; he scarcely knows what ails him.  He still grows.  All his internal organs are cramped and displaced.  He grows still larger; he has the head, shoulders and limbs of a man and the waist of a child.