Letters 90.12

And I also differ from him when he says that wise men discovered our mines of iron and copper, “when the earth, scorched by forest fires, melted the veins of ore which lay near the surface and caused the metal to gush forth.” Nay, the sort of men who discover such things are the sort of men who are busied with them.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 90.12, translated by Richard Mott Gummere