Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              which they say nothing more pernicious could have been brought into the
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              life of man. </s>
              <s>For it is employed in making swords, javelins, spears, pikes,
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              arrows—weapons by which men are wounded, and which cause slaughter,
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              robbery, and wars. </s>
              <s>These things so moved the wrath of Pliny that he wrote:
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              “Iron is used not only in hand to hand fighting, but also to form the winged
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              missiles of war, sometimes for hurling engines, sometimes for lances, some­
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              times even for arrows. </s>
              <s>I look upon it as the most deadly fruit of human
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              ingenuity. </s>
              <s>For to bring Death to men more quickly we have given wings to
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              iron and taught it to fly.”
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              The spear, the arrow from the bow, or the bolt
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              from the catapult and other engines can be driven into the body of only one
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              man, while the iron cannon-ball fired through the air, can go through the
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              bodies of many men, and there is no marble or stone object so hard that it
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              cannot be shattered by the force and shock. </s>
              <s>Therefore it levels the highest
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              towers to the ground, shatters and destroys the strongest walls. </s>
              <s>Certainly
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              the ballistas which throw stones, the battering rams and other ancient war
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              engines for making breaches in walls of fortresses and hurling down strong­
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              holds, seem to have little power in comparison with our present cannon.
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              </s>
              <s>These emit horrible sounds and noises, not less than thunder, flashes
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              of fire burst from them like the lightning, striking, crushing, and shatter­
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              ing buildings, belching forth flames and kindling fires even as lightning
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              flashes. </s>
              <s>So that with more justice could it be said of the impious men of
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              our age than of Salmoneus of ancient days, that they had snatched lightning
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              from Jupiter and wrested it from his hands. </s>
              <s>Nay, rather there has been
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              sent from the infernal regions to the earth this force for the destruction of
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              men, so that Death may snatch to himself as many as possible by one stroke.</s>
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              <s>But because muskets are nowadays rarely made of iron, and the large
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              ones never, but of a certain mixture of copper and tin, they confer more
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              maledictions on copper and tin than on iron. </s>
              <s>In this connection too, they
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              mention the brazen bull of Phalaris, the brazen ox of the people of Per­
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              gamus, racks in the shape of an iron dog or a horse, manacles, shackles,
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              wedges, hooks, and red-hot plates. </s>
              <s>Cruelly racked by such instruments,
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              people are driven to confess crimes and misdeeds which they have never
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              committed, and innocent men are miserably tortured to death by every
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              conceivable kind of torment.</s>
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              <s>It is claimed too, that lead is a pestilential and noxious metal, for men
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              are punished by means of molten lead, as Horace describes in the ode
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              addressed to the Goddess Fortune: “Cruel Necessity ever goes before thee
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              bearing in her brazen hand the spikes and wedges, while the awful hook and
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              molten lead are also not lacking.”
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              In their desire to excite greater odium
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              for this metal, they are not silent about the leaden balls of muskets, and they
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              find in it the cause of wounds and death.</s>
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              <s>They contend that, inasmuch as Nature has concealed metals far within
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              the depths of the earth, and because they are not necessary to human life,
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              they are therefore despised and repudiated by the noblest, and should not be
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              </s>
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