BOOK XIV. I. 3-5 



not a few writers folluwed hiin in tiicse rescarches — 

 which has been a source of more toil to us,inasmuch 

 as nowadays it is necessary to investigate not only 

 subsequent discoverics but also those that had al- 

 ready been made by the men of old,because general 

 slackness has decreed an utter destruction of records. 

 And for this fault who can discover other causes than Gwwth of 

 the general movement of affairs in the world ? The fact di^p/"'' 

 is that other customs have come into vogue, and the sdence. 

 minds of men are occupied about other matters : the 

 only arts cultivated are the arts of avarice. Previously 

 a nation's sovereignty was self-contained, and con- 

 sequently the people's genius was also circumscribed ; 

 and so a certain barrenness of fortune made it a 

 necessity to exercise the gifts of the mind, and kings 

 innumerable received the homage of the arts, and 

 put these riches in the front place when displaying 

 their resources, believing that by the arts they 

 could prolong their immortality. This was the 

 reason why the rewards of life and also its achieve- 

 ments were then so abundant. But later generations 

 have been positively handicapped by the expansion 

 of the world and by our multiplicity of resources. 

 After senators began to be selected and judges 

 appointed on the score of wealth, and w^ealth be- 

 came the sole adornment of magistrate and military 

 commander, after lack of children to succeed one 

 began to occupy the place of highest influence and 

 power, and legacy-hunting ranked as the most 

 profitable profession, and the only delights con- 

 sisted in ownership, the true prizes of life went to 

 ruin, and all the arts that derived their name 

 ' liberal ' from liberty, the supreme good, fell into 

 the opposite class, and servility began to be the 



189 



