Agricola, Georgius
,
De re metallica
,
1912/1950
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could make anything that is beautiful and perfect without using metals? </
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<
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if tools of iron or brass were not used, we could not make tools of wood a
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stone without the help of metal. </
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<
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>From all these examples are evident t
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benefits and advantages derived from metals. </
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<
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>We should not have ha
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these at all unless the science of mining and metallurgy had been discovere
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and handed down to us. </
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<
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>Who then does not understand how highly usef
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they are, nay rather, how necessary to the human race? </
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>In a word, ma
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could not do without the mining industry, nor did Divine Providence wi
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that he should.</
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<
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>Further, it has been asked whether to work in metals is honourab
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employment for respectable people or whether it is not degrading an
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dishonourable. </
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<
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>We ourselves count it amongst the honourable arts. </
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that art, the pursuit of which is unquestionably not impious, nor offensive
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nor mean, we may esteem honourable. </
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>That this is the nature of th
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mining profession, inasmuch as it promotes wealth by good and hones
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methods, we shall show presently. </
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>With justice, therefore, we may clas
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it amongst honourable employments. </
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>In the first place, the occupatio
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of the miner, which I must be allowed to compare with other methods o
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acquiring great wealth, is just as noble as that of agriculture; for, as th
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farmer, sowing his seed in his fields injures no one, however profitable they
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may prove to him, so the miner digging for his metals, albeit he draws forth
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great heaps of gold or silver, hurts thereby no mortal man. </
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<
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>Certainly these
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two modes of increasing wealth are in the highest degree both noble and
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honourable. </
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<
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>The booty of the soldier, however, is frequently impious,
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because in the fury of the fighting he seizes all goods, sacred as well as
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profane. </
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>The most just king may have to declare war on cruel tyrants,
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but in the course of it wicked men cannot lose their wealth and possessions
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without dragging into the same calamity innocent and poor people, old
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men, matrons, maidens, and orphans. </
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>But the miner is able to accumu
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late great riches in a short time, without using any violence, fraud, o
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malice. </
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<
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>That old saying is, therefore, not always true that “Every rich
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man is either wicked himself, or is the heir to wickedness.”</
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>Some, however, who contend against us, censure and attack miners by
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saying that they and their children must needs fall into penury after a short
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time, because they have heaped up riches by improper means. </
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<
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to them nothing is truer than the saying of the poet Naevius:</
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<
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>“Ill gotten gains in ill fashion slip away.”</
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<
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>The following are some of the wicked and sinful methods by which
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they say men obtain riches from mining. </
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<
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>When a prospect of obtaining
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metals shows itself in a mine, either the ruler or magistrate drives out the
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rightful owners of the mines from possession, or a shrewd and cunning
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neighbour perhaps brings a law-suit against the old possessors in order to
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rob them of some part of their property. </
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<
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>Or the mine superintendent imposes
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on the owners such a heavy contribution on shares, that if they cannot pay,
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or will not, they lose their rights of possession; while the superintendent,
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contrary to all that is right, seizes upon all that they have lost. </
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<
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