XV 



A MINING TALE 207 



XV 



You must now allow me to tell you a little story ! i 

 Asclepiodotus vouches for the tale. Once on a time 

 a large party of miners was sent down by Philip 

 into an old mine, long since abandoned, to ascertain 

 its prospects and condition, and to see whether 

 ancient avarice had left anything for posterity to 

 glean. Down they went with plenty of light to last 

 for days. In due time, when they were quite tired 

 by the length of the road, they saw a sight to make 

 their hair stand on end huge rivers and vast 

 reservoirs of sluggish waters, equal in size to any 

 above ground, not pressed down either with a 

 weight of earth above, but overarched with an open 

 vault. I confess I felt lively satisfaction in reading 

 the story. It showed me that the vices from which 2 

 our age suffers are not new ; they have been handed 

 down from ancient days. Nor is it in our age that 

 avarice has for the first time ransacked the reefs of 

 soil and stone, searching in the dark for treasure 

 badly hidden. Those ancestors of ours, whom we 

 are always vaunting, our declension from whose 

 standard we constantly bemoan, were also lured 

 by hope to cut down the mountains and stand 

 beneath the ruins to gloat over their filthy lucre. 



Before the time of Philip of Macedon there were 3 

 kings who pursued treasure down to its deepest 

 lurking-places ; leaving the free air and light of day 

 behind, they lowered themselves into those caverns, 

 which no distinction of night from day could reach. 

 What expectation could lead them on ? What 

 necessity caused man, whose head points to the 



