Great holes were made through the very hills for the passage of the iron
chariot, but they are now blocked by the falling roofs, nor dare any one
explore such parts as may yet be open. Where are the wonderful
structures with which the men of those days were lifted to the skies,
rising above the clouds? These marvellous things are to us little more
than fables of the giants and of the old gods that walked upon the
earth, which were fables even to those whom we call the ancients.

Indeed, we have fuller knowledge of those extremely ancient times than
of the people who immediately preceded us, and the Romans and the Greeks
are more familiar to us than the men who rode in the iron chariots and
mounted to the skies. The reason why so many arts and sciences were lost
was because, as I have previously said, the most of those who were left
in the country were ignorant, rude, and unlettered. They had seen the
iron chariots, but did not understand the method of their construction,
and could not hand down the knowledge they did not themselves possess.
The magic wires of intelligence passed through their villages, but they
did not know how to work them.

The cunning artificers of the cities all departed, and everything fell
quickly into barbarism; nor could it be wondered at, for the few and
scattered people of those days had enough to do to preserve their lives.
Communication between one place and another was absolutely cut off, and
if one perchance did recollect something that might have been of use, he
could not confer with another who knew the other part, and thus between
them reconstruct the machine. In the second generation even these
disjointed memories died out.

At first it is supposed that those who remained behind existed upon the
grain in the warehouses, and what they could thresh by the flail from