Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <pb/>
            <p type="head">
              <s>
                <emph type="bold"/>
              BOOK II.
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              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>Qualities which the perfect miner should possess
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              and the arguments which are urged for and against
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              the arts of mining and metallurgy, as well
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              as the people occupied in the industry, I
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              have sufficiently discussed in the first Book. </s>
              <s>Now
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              I have determined to give more ample information
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              concerning the miners.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>In the first place, it is indispensable that they
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              should worship God with reverence, and that they
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              understand the matters of which I am going to speak, and that they
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              take good care that each individual performs his duties efficiently and
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              diligently. </s>
              <s>It is decreed by Divine Providence that those who know
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              what they ought to do and then take care to do it properly, for the
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              most part meet with good fortune in all they undertake; on the other
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              hand, misfortune overtakes the indolent and those who are careless in
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              their work. </s>
              <s>No person indeed can, without great and sustained effort and
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              labour, store in his mind the knowledge of every portion of the metallic
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              arts which are involved in operating mines. </s>
              <s>If a man has the means
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              of paying the necessary expense, he hires as many men as he needs, and
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              sends them to the various works. </s>
              <s>Thus formerly Sosias, the Thracian, sent
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              into the silver mines a thousand slaves whom he had hired from the Athenian
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              Nicias, the son of Niceratus
                <emph type="sup"/>
              1
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              . </s>
              <s>But if a man cannot afford the expenditure
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              he chooses of the various kinds of mining that work which he himself can
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              most easily and efficiently do. </s>
              <s>Of these kinds, the two most important
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              are the making prospect trenches and the washing of the sands of rivers, for
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              out of these sands are often collected gold dust, or certain black stones
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              from which tin is smelted, or even gems are sometimes found in them; the
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              trenching occasionally lays bare at the grass-roots veins which are found rich
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              in metals. </s>
              <s>If therefore by skill or by luck, such sands or veins shall fall
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              into his hands, he will be able to establish his fortune without expenditure,
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              and from poverty rise to wealth. </s>
              <s>If on the contrary, his hopes are not realised,
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              then he can desist from washing or digging.</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>When anyone, in an endeavour to increase his fortune, meets the
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              expenditure of a mine alone, it is of great importance that he should attend
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              to his works and personally superintend everything that he has ordered to
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              be done. </s>
              <s>For this reason, he should either have his dwelling at the mine, </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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