Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

Page concordance

< >
Scan Original
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
< >
page |< < of 679 > >|
    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <p type="main">
              <s>
                <pb pagenum="23"/>
              would be held in no less odium amongst good men than is the usurer, did
                <lb/>
              they not take account of the risk he runs to secure his merchandise. </s>
              <s>In
                <lb/>
              truth, those who on this point speak abusively of mining for the sake of
                <lb/>
              detracting from its merits, say that in former days men convicted of crimes
                <lb/>
              and misdeeds were sentenced to the mines and were worked as slaves. </s>
              <s>But
                <lb/>
              to-day the miners receive pay, and are engaged like other workmen in the
                <lb/>
              common trades.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Certainly, if mining is a shameful and discreditable employment for a
                <lb/>
              gentleman because slaves once worked mines, then agriculture also will not be
                <lb/>
              a very creditable employment, because slaves once cultivated the fields, and
                <lb/>
              even to-day do so among the Turks; nor will architecture be considered
                <lb/>
              honest, because some slaves have been found skilful in that profession;
                <lb/>
              nor medicine, because not a few doctors have been slaves; nor will any other
                <lb/>
              worthy craft, because men captured by force of arms have practised it.
                <lb/>
              </s>
              <s>Yet agriculture, architecture, and medicine are none the less counted
                <lb/>
              amongst the number of honourable professions; therefore, mining
                <lb/>
              ought not for this reason to be excluded from them. </s>
              <s>But suppose we
                <lb/>
              grant that the hired miners have a sordid employment. </s>
              <s>We do not mean
                <lb/>
              by miners only the diggers and other workmen, but also those skilled in the
                <lb/>
              mining arts, and those who invest money in mines. </s>
              <s>Amongst them can be
                <lb/>
              counted kings, princes, republics, and from these last the most esteemed
                <lb/>
              citizens. </s>
              <s>And finally, we include amongst the overseers of mines the noble
                <lb/>
              Thucydides, the historian, whom the Athenians placed in charge of the
                <lb/>
              mines of Thasos.
                <emph type="sup"/>
              29
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              And it would not be unseemly for the owners themselves
                <lb/>
              to work with their own hands on the works or ore, especially if they them­
                <lb/>
              selves have contributed to the cost of the mines. </s>
              <s>Just as it is not undignified
                <lb/>
              for great men to cultivate their own land. </s>
              <s>Otherwise the Roman Senate
                <lb/>
              would not have created Dictator L. </s>
              <s>Quintius Cincinnatus, as he was at
                <lb/>
              work in the fields, nor would it have summoned to the Senate House the
                <lb/>
              chief men of the State from their country villas. </s>
              <s>Similarly, in our day,
                <lb/>
              Maximilian Cæsar would not have enrolled Conrad in the ranks of the nobles
                <lb/>
              known as Counts; Conrad was really very poor when he served in the mines
                <lb/>
              of Schneeberg, and for that reason he was nicknamed the “poor man”; but </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
Impressum