She gives no invitation
to follow her to the cavern,--the external earth makes no proclamation
of the interior stores, but leaves to chance and industry the discovery
of the whole. In such gifts as Nature can annually recreate, she is
noble and profuse, and entertains the whole world with the interest of
her fortune, but watches over the capital with the care of a miser. Her
gold and jewels lie concealed in the earth, in caves of utter darkness;
and hoards of wealth, heaps upon heaps, mould in the chests, like the
riches of a necromancer's cell."
* * * * *
An essay against African Slavery, written for Bradford's paper,
introduced Paine to the notice of several distinguished men,--among
others, to that of Dr. Rush. Many years afterward, in a letter to
Cheetham, the Doctor described his first interview with Paine. In this
communication, he insinuates that he suggested the famous pamphlet and
the no less famous signature, "Common Sense." But in 1809, the
venerable Doctor was an old man; and even in earlier days, his keen
appreciation of "_Ille ego qui quondam_" and "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"
as the choicest passages in Virgil, was good-naturedly noticed by his
contemporaries.
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