Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
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              alone she uses her beauty aright, but if she lives wantonly and is a victim
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              of passion, she misuses her beauty. </s>
              <s>In like manner, a youth who devotes
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              himself to learning and cultivates the liberal arts, uses his genius rightly.
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              </s>
              <s>But he who dissembles, lies, cheats, and deceives by fraud and dishonesty,
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              misuses his abilities. </s>
              <s>Now, the man who, because they are abused, denies that
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              wine, strength, beauty, or genius are good things, is unjust and blasphemous
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              towards the Most High God, Creator of the World; so he who would remove
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              metals from the class of blessings also acts unjustly and blasphemously
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              against Him. </s>
              <s>Very true, therefore, are the words which certain Greek
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              poets have written, as Pindar:</s>
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              <s>“Money glistens, adorned with virtue; it supplies the means by
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              which thou mayest act well in whatever circumstances fate may
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              have in store for thee.”
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              </s>
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              <s>And Sappho:</s>
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              <s>“Without the love of virtue gold is a dangerous and harmful guest,
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              but when it is associated with virtue, it becomes the source and height
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              of good.”</s>
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              <s>And Callimachus:</s>
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              <s>“Riches do not make men great without virtue; neither do virtues
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              themselves make men great without some wealth.”</s>
            </p>
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              <s>And Antiphanes:</s>
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              <s>“Now, by the gods, why is it necessary for a man to grow rich?
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              </s>
              <s>Why does he desire to possess much money unless that he may, as
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              much as possible, help his friends, and sow the seeds of a harvest of
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              gratitude, sweetest of the goddesses.”
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              27
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              </s>
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              <s>Having thus refuted the arguments and contentions of adversaries,
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              let us sum up the advantages of the metals. </s>
              <s>In the first place, they are
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              useful to the physician, for they furnish liberally the ingredients for medi­
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              cines, by which wounds and ulcers are cured, and even plagues; so that
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              certainly if there were no other reasons why we should explore the depths of
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              the earth, we should for the sake of medicine alone dig in the mines. </s>
              <s>Again,
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              the metals are of use to painters, because they yield certain pigments which,
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              when united with the painter's slip, are injured less than others by the moisture
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              from without. </s>
              <s>Further, mining is useful to the architects, for thus is found
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              marble, which is suitable not only for strengthening large buildings, but
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              also for decoration. </s>
              <s>It is, moreover, helpful to those whose ambition urges
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              them toward immortal glory, because it yields metals from which are made
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              coins, statues, and other monuments, which, next to literary records, give men
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              in a sense immortality. </s>
              <s>The metals are useful to merchants with very great cause,
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              for, as I have stated elsewhere, the use of money which is made from metals is
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              much more convenient to mankind than the old system of exchange of commodi­
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              ties. </s>
              <s>In short, to whom are the metals not of use? </s>
              <s>In very truth, even the works
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              of art, elegant, embellished, elaborate, useful, are fashioned in various shapes by
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              the artist from the metals gold, silver, brass, lead, and iron. </s>
              <s>How few artists
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              </s>
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