Date: 380-360 B.C.

"'All of you in the city are certainly brothers,' we shall say to them in telling the tale, 'but god, in fashioning those of you who are competent to rule, mixed gold in at their birth; this is why they are most honored; in auxiliaries, silver, and iron and bronze in the farmers and other craftsm...

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

Date: 380-360 B.C.

"Hence the god commands the rulers first and foremost to be of nothing such good guardians and to keep over nothing so careful a watch as the children, seeing which of these metals is mixed in their souls."

— Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

Date: 1805

"Your Worth and Talents will unfold, / Richer than Needlework of Gold; / The native treasures of the soul, / True--as the Needle to the Pole."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"From that rich mine--a merry heart-- / You draw, with more than chemic art, / Of happy thoughts a copious store, / And radiant Gold without the Ore."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"And the gay vein of sportive Sense / Enrich'd by sterling Innocence; / Th'undrossy treasures of the Mind / Good-humour'd, graceful, and refin'd; / And, rivalling the Seers of old, / Whate'er you touch transmutes to Gold."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"The history of his Heart can tell; / Can all its sterling powers unfold, / More worth than Pens or Mines of Gold"

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

Minerva has "With ready Thought, Expression fit, / And sterling Sense, and playful Wit" array'd her "favour'd Boy" Cupid

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)

Date: 1805

"And oft thy prostituted wheel / Turns to enrich a heart of steel."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)