6 BOOK I. 



It is not my intention to detract anything from the dignity of agri- 

 culture, and that the profits of mining are less stable I will always and readily 

 admit, for the veins do in time cease to yield metals, whereas the fields bring 

 forth fruits every year. But though the business of mining may be less 

 reliable it is more productive, so that in reckoning up, what is wanting in 

 stability is found to be made up by productiveness. Indeed, the yearly 

 profit of a lead mine in comparison with the fruitfulness of the best fields, 

 is three times or at least twice as great. How much does the profit from 

 gold or silver mines exceed that earned from agriculture ? Wherefore truly 

 and shrewdly does Xenophon^^ write about the Athenian silver mines : 

 " There is land of such a nature that if you sow, it does not yield crops, 

 but if you dig, it nourishes many more than if it had borne fruit." So let 

 the farmers have for themselves the fruitful fields and cultivate the fertile 

 hills for the sake of their produce ; but let them leave to miners the gloomy 

 valleys and sterile mountains, that they may draw forth from these, gems 

 and metals which can buy, not only the crops, but all things that are sold. 



The critics say further that mining is a perilous occupation to pursue, 

 because the miners are sometimes killed by the pestilential air which they 

 breathe ; sometimes their lungs rot away ; sometimes the men perish by being 

 crushed in masses of rock ; sometimes, falling from the ladders into the 

 shafts, they break their arms, legs, or necks ; and it is added there is no com- 

 pensation which should be thought great enough to equalize the extreme 

 dangers to safety and life. These occurrences, I confess, are of exceeding 

 gravity, and moreover, fraught with terror and peril, so that I should con- 

 sider that the metals should not be dug up at aU, if such things were to happen 

 very frequently to the miners, or if they could not safely guard against such 

 risks by any means. Who would not prefer to live rather than to possess 

 all things, even the metals ? For he who thus perishes possesses nothing, 

 but relinquishes all to his heirs. But since things like this rarely happen, 

 and only in so far as workmen are careless, they do not deter miners from 

 carrying on their trade any more than it would deter a carpenter from his, 

 because one of his mates has acted incautiously and lost his life by falling 

 from a high building. I have thus answered each argument which critics are 

 wont to put before me when they assert that mining is an undesirable occupa- 

 tion, because it involves expense with uncertainty of return, because it is 

 changeable, and because it is dangerous to those engaged in it. 



Now I come to those critics who say that mining is not useful to the 

 rest of mankind because forsooth, gems, metals, and other mineral products 

 are worthless in themselves. This admission they try to extort from us, 

 partly by arguments and examples, partly by misrepresentations and abuse of 

 us. First, they make use of this argument : " The earth does not conceal 

 and remove from our eyes those things which are useful and necessary to 



that the lead mines of Goslar in the Hartz were worked by Otho the Great (936-973), 

 and that the silver mines at Freiberg were discovered during the rule of Prince Otho (about 

 1 170). To continue the argument to-day we could add about 360 years more of life to the 

 mines of Goslar and Freiberg. See also Note 16, p. 36, and note 19, p. 37. 

 '^Xenophon. Essay on the Revenues of Athens, i., 5. 



