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There is nothing in the Fields, the Woods, and the Rivers, that appeared natural. Several of the Trees blossomed in Leaf-Gold, some of them produced Bone-Lace, and some of them precious Stones.
This glory he describes as "the leaf-gold which the devil has laid over the backside of ambition, to make it glitter to the world." Defoe's knowledge of the irritation caused among the Dissenters by his Shortest Way, did not prevent him from shocking them and annoying the high Tories by similar jeux d'esprit.
Out of his box, in which were the most beautiful colours, the old man took a quantity of shining leaf-gold, while the boys had to go and fetch some white of egg, with which the sparrow was to be smeared all over; the gold was stuck on to this, and the sparrow-mother was now gilded all over. But she, trembling in every limb, did not think of the adornment.
Perhaps it is felt most by the poor, with the rich it may be less intense too much diffused and spread out, becoming thin by expansion, like leaf-gold; the little of the poor may be not only more precious, but more pleasant to them: certain that bit of grassy and blossomy earth, with its green knolls and tufted bushes, its old pollards wreathed with ivy, and its bright and babbling waters, is very dear to me.
For however it may be thought all one, yet, if well considered, it will be found a quite different thing, to argue about gold in name, and about a parcel in the body itself, v.g. a piece of leaf-gold laid before us; though in discourse we are fain to substitute the name for the thing. The Cause of this Abuse, a supposition of Nature's working always regularly, in setting boundaries to Species.
Upon the top of this hill, the flat paved top, stands the pagoda, a great solid tapering cone over three hundred feet high, ending in an iron fretwork spire that glitters with gold and jewels; and the whole pagoda is covered with gold pure leaf-gold.
I afterwards cut out nine square pieces of gauze of the same colors with the ribbons, and having put them one after another on a hoop of wood, with leaf-gold under them, the leaf-gold was attracted through all the colored pieces of gauze, but not through the white or black.
He may avoid all pompous, useless, chargable Medicines of the Shops, and substitute in their place, cheaper, and more conducible to health; He may very well lay aside the precious Stones, Saphir, Emerals, &c. the high priced Magistrals of Coral, and Pearl, made worse by their preparations, or rather destroyed thereby in their Virtue, as also Unicorns Horn; and Bezoar, all which are now rarely used alone, but in the received Compositions; He may also spare the charges of leaf-gold, for guilding Pots, Glasses, Pills, Electuaries, Boles, &c. which serves only to raise the Bill.
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