DRAINING OF LAKE COPIAS. 413 



other known artificial arrangements for defending the land 

 against the encroachments of the rivers and the sea, and for re- 

 claiming to the domain of agriculture and civilization soil long 

 covered by the waters.* But although the recovery and protec- 

 tion of lands flooded by the sea seems to be an art wholly of 

 Netherlandish origin, we have abundant evidence that, in ancient 

 as well as in comparatively modern times, great enterprises more 

 or less analogous in character have been successfully undertaken, 

 both in inland Europe and in the less familiar countries of the 

 East. 



In many cases no historical record remains to inform us when 

 or by whom such works were constructed. The Greeks and Ro- 

 mans, the latter especially, were more inclined to undertake and 

 carry out stupendous material enterprises than to boast of them ; 

 and many of the grandest and most important constructions of 

 those nations are absolutely unnoticed by contemporary annalists, 

 and are first mentioned by writers living after all knowledge of 

 the epochs of the projectors of these works had perished. Thus 

 the aqueduct known as the Pont du Gard, near Nimes, which, 

 though not surpassing in volume or in probable cost other analo- 

 gous constructions of ancient and of modern ages, is yet among 

 the most majestic and imposing remains of ancient civil arclii- 

 tecture, is not so much as spoken of by any Roman author,f and 

 we are in absolute ignorance of the age or the construction of the 

 remarkable tunnel cut to drain Lake Copais in Bceotia. This 



* When the sluices of the great dike at Katwijk are opened at low tide for 

 the escape of the accumulated waters of the Rhine, the discharge for some 

 hours is equal to the average flow of the Nile, or 100,000 cubic feet per second. 



f One reason for the silence of Roman writers in respect to great material 

 improvements which had no immediate relation to military or political objects, 

 is doubtless the contempt in which mechanical operations and mechanical con- 

 trivances were held by that nation of spoilers. Even the engineer, upon 

 whose skill the attack or defence of a great city depended, was oulj prcpfectus 

 fabrum, the master-artisan, and had no military rank or command. This pre- 

 judice continued to a late period in the Middle Ages, and the chiefs of artil- 

 lery were equally without grade or title as soldiers. 



" The occupations of all artisans," says Cicero, " are base, and the shop can 

 have nothing cf the respectable." — Be Officiis, 1. i., 42. The position of the 

 surgeon relatively to the physician, in England, is a remnant of the same pre- 

 judice, which still survives in full vigor in Italy, with regard to both trade 

 and industry. See p. 6, ante. 



