Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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      <text>
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            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="23"/>
              would be held in no less odium amongst good men than is the usurer, did
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              they not take account of the risk he runs to secure his merchandise. </s>
              <s>In
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              truth, those who on this point speak abusively of mining for the sake of
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              detracting from its merits, say that in former days men convicted of crimes
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              and misdeeds were sentenced to the mines and were worked as slaves. </s>
              <s>But
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              to-day the miners receive pay, and are engaged like other workmen in the
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              common trades.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Certainly, if mining is a shameful and discreditable employment for a
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              gentleman because slaves once worked mines, then agriculture also will not be
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              a very creditable employment, because slaves once cultivated the fields, and
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              even to-day do so among the Turks; nor will architecture be considered
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              honest, because some slaves have been found skilful in that profession;
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              nor medicine, because not a few doctors have been slaves; nor will any other
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              worthy craft, because men captured by force of arms have practised it.
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              </s>
              <s>Yet agriculture, architecture, and medicine are none the less counted
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              amongst the number of honourable professions; therefore, mining
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              ought not for this reason to be excluded from them. </s>
              <s>But suppose we
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              grant that the hired miners have a sordid employment. </s>
              <s>We do not mean
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              by miners only the diggers and other workmen, but also those skilled in the
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              mining arts, and those who invest money in mines. </s>
              <s>Amongst them can be
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              counted kings, princes, republics, and from these last the most esteemed
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              citizens. </s>
              <s>And finally, we include amongst the overseers of mines the noble
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              Thucydides, the historian, whom the Athenians placed in charge of the
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              mines of Thasos.
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              29
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              And it would not be unseemly for the owners themselves
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              to work with their own hands on the works or ore, especially if they them­
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              selves have contributed to the cost of the mines. </s>
              <s>Just as it is not undignified
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              for great men to cultivate their own land. </s>
              <s>Otherwise the Roman Senate
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              would not have created Dictator L. </s>
              <s>Quintius Cincinnatus, as he was at
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              work in the fields, nor would it have summoned to the Senate House the
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              chief men of the State from their country villas. </s>
              <s>Similarly, in our day,
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              Maximilian Cæsar would not have enrolled Conrad in the ranks of the nobles
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              known as Counts; Conrad was really very poor when he served in the mines
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              of Schneeberg, and for that reason he was nicknamed the “poor man”; but </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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