Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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    <archimedes>
      <text>
        <body>
          <chap>
            <pb pagenum="18"/>
            <p type="main">
              <s>The question next arises, whether we ought to count metals amongst
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              the number of good things or class them amongst the bad. </s>
              <s>The Peripatetics
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              regarded all wealth as a good thing, and merely spoke of externals as having
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              to do with neither the mind nor the body. </s>
              <s>Well, let riches be an external
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              thing. </s>
              <s>And, as they said, many other things may be classed as good if it is
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              in one's power to use them either well or ill. </s>
              <s>For good men employ them for
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              good, and to them they are useful. </s>
              <s>The wicked use them badly, and to
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              them they are harmful. </s>
              <s>There is a saying of Socrates, that just as wine
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              is influenced by the cask, so the character of riches is like their possessors.
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              </s>
              <s>The Stoics, whose custom it is to argue subtly and acutely, though they did
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              not put wealth in the category of good things, they did not count it amongst
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              the evil ones, but placed it in that class which they term neutral. </s>
              <s>For to
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              them virtue alone is good, and vice alone evil. </s>
              <s>The whole of what remains
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              is indifferent. </s>
              <s>Thus, in their conviction, it matters not whether one be in
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              good health or seriously ill; whether one be handsome or deformed. </s>
              <s>In
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              short:</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>“Whether, sprung from Inachus of old, and thus hast lived
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              beneath the sun in wealth, or hast been poor and despised among men,
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              it matters not.”</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>For my part, I see no reason why anything that is in itself of use should
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              not be placed in the class of good things. </s>
              <s>At all events, metals are a
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              creation of Nature, and they supply many varied and necessary needs of the
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              human race, to say nothing about their uses in adornment, which are so
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              wonderfully blended with utility. </s>
              <s>Therefore, it is not right to degrade them
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              from the place they hold among the good things. </s>
              <s>In truth, if there is a
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              bad use made of them, should they on that account be rightly called evils?
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              </s>
              <s>For of what good things can we not make an equally bad or good use? </s>
              <s>Let
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              me give examples from both classes of what we term good. </s>
              <s>Wine, by far
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              the best drink, if drunk in moderation, aids the digestion of food, helps to
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              produce blood, and promotes the juices in all parts of the body. </s>
              <s>It is of use
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              in nourishing not only the body but the mind as well, for it disperses our
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              dark and gloomy thoughts, frees us from cares and anxiety, and restores
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              our confidence. </s>
              <s>If drunk in excess, however, it injures and prostrates the
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              body with serious disease. </s>
              <s>An intoxicated man keeps nothing to himself;
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              he raves and rants, and commits many wicked and infamous acts. </s>
              <s>On
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              this subject Theognis wrote some very clever lines, which we may render
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              thus:</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>“Wine is harmful if taken with greedy lips, but if drunk in
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              moderation it is wholesome.”
                <emph type="sup"/>
              25
                <emph.end type="sup"/>
              </s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>But I linger too long over extraneous matters. </s>
              <s>I must pass on to the
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              gifts of body and mind, amongst which strength, beauty, and genius
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              occur to me. </s>
              <s>If then a man, relying on his strength, toils hard to maintain
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              himself and his family in an honest and respectable manner, he uses the
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              gift aright, but if he makes a living out of murder and robbery, he uses it
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              wrongly. </s>
              <s>Likewise, too, if a lovely woman is anxious to please her husband </s>
            </p>
          </chap>
        </body>
      </text>
    </archimedes>
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