It is as idle to attempt to make an ounce of silver worth as much as an ounce of gold by legislation, as it is to try to make one pound weigh two pounds, or one yard measure two yards.
George F. Hoar: “It is as idle to attempt to make an ounce of silver worth as much as an ounce of gold by legislation, as it is to try to…”
Editor's note · Context
Hoar uses a metaphor to illustrate the futility of legislating the value of silver compared to gold.
Share
More from George F. Hoar
To go fully into the role of the number three in British traditions would require a profound study; but it may be useful briefly to note its influence on the Bardic poetry-- the Triads, where the subjects are all grouped in threes.
It is not too much to say that most of the main roads in England are Roman; but the very continuity of their use has caused this to be overlooked.
We speak of a light that makes darkness visible; and similarly there are sounds that deepen the long intervals of silence with which they alternate.
And the Greeks, in turn, owed their astronomy to the Egyptians, with whom the year was reckoned as of three hundred and sixty days; and this three hundred and sixty-day year gives us the clue to the forty-day period for holding the Forest…





