BOOK I. 7 



mankind, but on the contrary, like a beneficent and kindly mother she yields 

 in large abundance from her bounty and brings into the light of day the 

 herbs, vegetables, grains, and fruits, and the trees. The minerals on the 

 other hand she buries far beneath in the depth of the ground; therefore, 

 they should not be sought. But they are dug out by wicked men who, as 

 the poets say, are the products of the Iron Age." Ovid censures their 

 audacity in the following lines : 



" And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due 



sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the earth, and 



they dug up riches, those incentives to vice, which the earth had hidden 



and had removed to the Stygian shades. Then destructive iron came 



forth, and gold, more destructive than iron ; then war came forth." 13 



Another of their arguments is this : Metals offer to men no advantages, 



therefore we ought not to search them out. For whereas man is composed 



of soul and body, neither is in want of minerals. The sweetest food of the 



soul is the contemplation of nature, a knowledge of the finest arts and sciences, 



an understanding of virtue ; and if he interests his mind in excellent things, 



if he exercise his body, he will be satisfied with this feast of noble thoughts and 



knowledge, and have no desire for other things. Now although the human 



body may be content with necessary food and clothing, yet the fruits of the 



earth and the animals of different kinds supply him in wonderful abundance 



with food and drink, from which the body may be suitably nourished and 



strengthened and life prolonged to old age. Flax, wool, and the skins of 



many animals provide plentiful clothing low in price ; while a luxurious kind, 



not hard to procure that is the so called seric material, is furnished by the 



down of trees and the webs of the silk worm. So that the body has absolutely 



no need of the metals, so hidden in the depths of the earth and for the greater 



part very expensive. Wherefore it is said that this maxim of Euripides is 



approved in assemblies of learned men, and with good reason was always on 



the lips of Socrates : 



" Works of silver and purple are of use, not for human life, but 

 rather for Tragedians." 14 

 These critics praise also this saying from Timocreon of Rhodes : 



" O Unseeing Plutus, would that thou hadst never appeared in the 

 earth or in the sea or on the land, but that thou didst have thy habita- 

 tion in Tartarus and Acheron, for out of thee arise all evil things which 

 overtake mankind " 15 . 

 They greatly extol these lines from Phocylides : 



" Gold and silver are injurious to mortals ; gold is the source of 

 crime, the plague of life, and the ruin of all things. Would that thou 

 were not such an attractive scourge ! because of thee arise robberies, 



13 Ovid, Metamorphoses, I., 137 to 143. 



14 Diogenes Laertius, n., 5. The lines are assigned, however, to Philemon, not 

 Euripides. (Kock, Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta u., 512). 



1B We have not considered it of sufficient interest to cite the references to all of the 

 minor poets and those whose preserved works are but fragmentary. The translations from 

 the Greek into Latin are not literal and suffer again by rendering into English ; we have how- 

 ever considered it our duty to translate Agricola's view of the meaning. 



