PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY

BOOK XXXIII

Everything that is useful to us is found there. Yet those things that she has hidden and buried—those that do not spring up suddenly—are the very things that destroy us and drive us to the underworld. Our minds, soaring off into the void, wonder what will finally be the end of exhausting the earth through all the ages, and how far human greed will penetrate. How innocent, how blissful—indeed, how truly delicate—life would be if we desired nothing from any source other than the surface of the earth, and to be brief, nothing other than what is already at hand!

4 II. Gold is extracted, and with it chrysocolla original: "chrysocolla" — literally "gold-solder," actually malachite or basic copper carbonate., so that it may appear more precious, retaining a name derived from gold. It was not enough to have discovered one bane of life, unless the very corrupt humours of gold were also valued! Greed sought for silver, but in the process, it considered it a success to have discovered minium original: "minium" — cinnabar (mercury sulfide), used as a pigment., and it devised a use for this red earth. Alas for our wasteful ingenuity; in how many ways have we increased the prices of things! The art of painting was added, and we made gold and silver more expensive by engraving them. Man learned to challenge nature. The enticements of our vices have even increased the arts: it pleased us to engrave scenes of lust onto our goblets and to drink amidst obscenities. Afterward, these were cast aside and began to be held in contempt, as there became an excess of gold and silver. From the same earth, we dug up murrina original: "murrina" — likely fluor-spar (fluorite), highly prized for its color and fragility. and crystal, to which their very fragility gave value. This became the argument for riches, this became the true glory of luxury—