1not many years after, he attained wealth from the mines of Fürst,
which
is a city in Lorraine, and took his name from “Luck.”30 Nor would
King Vladislaus have restored to the Assembly of Barons, Tursius, a
citizen of Cracow, who became rich through the mines in that part of the
kingdom of Hungary which was formerly called Dacia.31 Nay, not even the
common worker in the mines is vile and abject. For, trained to vigilance
and work by night and day, he has great powers of endurance when occasion
demands, and easily sustains the fatigues and duties of a soldier, for he is
accustomed to keep long vigils at night, to wield iron tools, to dig trenches,
to drive tunnels, to make machines, and to carry burdens. Therefore, experts
in military affairs prefer the miner, not only to a commoner from the town,
but even to the rustic.
is a city in Lorraine, and took his name from “Luck.”30 Nor would
King Vladislaus have restored to the Assembly of Barons, Tursius, a
citizen of Cracow, who became rich through the mines in that part of the
kingdom of Hungary which was formerly called Dacia.31 Nay, not even the
common worker in the mines is vile and abject. For, trained to vigilance
and work by night and day, he has great powers of endurance when occasion
demands, and easily sustains the fatigues and duties of a soldier, for he is
accustomed to keep long vigils at night, to wield iron tools, to dig trenches,
to drive tunnels, to make machines, and to carry burdens. Therefore, experts
in military affairs prefer the miner, not only to a commoner from the town,
but even to the rustic.
But to bring this discussion to an end, inasmuch as the chief callings
are those of the moneylender, the soldier, the merchant, the farmer, and the
miner, I say, inasmuch as usury is odious, while the spoil cruelly captured
from the possessions of the people innocent of wrong is wicked in the sight
of God and man, and inasmuch as the calling of the miner excels in honour
and dignity that of the merchant trading for lucre, while it is not less noble
though far more profitable than agriculture, who can fail to realize that
mining is a calling of peculiar dignity? Certainly, though it is but one of
ten important and excellent methods of acquiring wealth in an honourable
way, a careful and diligent man can attain this result in no easier way
than by mining.
are those of the moneylender, the soldier, the merchant, the farmer, and the
miner, I say, inasmuch as usury is odious, while the spoil cruelly captured
from the possessions of the people innocent of wrong is wicked in the sight
of God and man, and inasmuch as the calling of the miner excels in honour
and dignity that of the merchant trading for lucre, while it is not less noble
though far more profitable than agriculture, who can fail to realize that
mining is a calling of peculiar dignity? Certainly, though it is but one of
ten important and excellent methods of acquiring wealth in an honourable
way, a careful and diligent man can attain this result in no easier way
than by mining.
END OF BOOK I.
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