e, many fields and forests, and he was first of all
dependent upon God's blessed sun, and when everything in good time had
ripened, and lay there in the sight of all, then he gave a tenth part
to the church. But now the riches are tucked away in fire-proof,
burglar-proof safes, not dependent on sun, not on wind and weather, are
not visible to the world, and have no tenth of the profit to give,--at
the most a trifling discount on the coupons to the banker; the harvest
of the bond-holder is the cutting off of coupons; these are the sheaves
of his harvest-home. If the Lord should come to-day, he would find no
temple from which to drive out the money-changers and traders, they
have erected for themselves their own temples. Yes, the stronghold of
Zion, to-day, to which princes, as well as rich men, make their
pilgrimage and commit themselves to its protection,--it is the Bank of
England! Have you ever once thought of this, what is to become of
humanity; what of States, if this increase of state-debts continues to
go on in this way? of course not. The whole earth will be one
tremendous mortgage, and mortgaged to whom? to him who lends on long
credit, but who will, some time or other, demand payment. A universal
conflagration will come, against which no fireproof vaults will avail,
and a deluge, which will wipe out the millions and millions upon
millions of State debts. I am not a man who delights in seeing mischief
done, but this I would say,--I should like to live to see the Bank of
England bankrupt. Only imagine it! At night the news comes. It is all
gone. Then will thousands of small men and small women see, for the
first time, how small they are, when they see themselves at once
stripped of all their trappings, and set down upon the bare earth."

Eric smiled. Every man placed in solitude, without an environment of
equalizing conditions, entertains readily peculiar notions that dart
through his mind; and he said that the earth would be burdened with
greater debts than it could pay, if it could only find those who would
advance the money. But the real possession of humanity was of more
value than the whole earth could pay for, as its greatest possession
was its ideal being, its power of working; and while, formerly, all
property was in the soil, it was just the problem of the modern age to
make available ideal and personal property. He wished further to add,
that even among the Romans in the time of the Republic itself, the