Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <pb pagenum="xiv"/>
            <p type="main">
              <s>That Agricola occupied a very considerable place in the great awakening of
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              learning will be disputed by none except by those who place the development
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              of science in rank far below religion, politics, literature, and art. </s>
              <s>Of wider
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              importance than the details of his achievements in the mere confines of the
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              particular science to which he applied himself, is the fact that he was the first
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              to found any of the natural sciences upon research and observation, as opposed
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              to previous fruitless speculation. </s>
              <s>The wider interest of the members of the
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              medical profession in the development of their science than that of geologists
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              in theirs, has led to the aggrandizement of Paracelsus, a contem­
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              porary of Agricola, as the first in deductive science. </s>
              <s>Yet no comparative
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              study of the unparalleled egotistical ravings of this half-genius, half-alchemist,
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              with the modest sober logic and real research and observation of Agricola,
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              can leave a moment's doubt as to the incomparably greater position which
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              should be attributed to the latter as the pioneer in building the foundation
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              of science by deduction from observed phenomena. </s>
              <s>Science is the base upon
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              which is reared the civilization of to-day, and while we give daily credit to all
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              those who toil in the superstructure, let none forget those men who laid its
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              first foundation stones. </s>
              <s>One of the greatest of these was Georgius Agricola.</s>
            </p>
            <figure number="1"/>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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