LIFE AND WRITINGS OF PLINY.

time: a record of all that was excellent or useful; but this record has in it features so grand, this compilation contains matter grouped in a manner so novel, that it is preferable to most of the original works that treat upon similar subjects.

The judgment pronounced by Cuvier on Pliny’s work, though somewhat less highly coloured, awards to it a high rank among the most valuable productions of antiquity.

"The work of Pliny1: Universal Biography, Vol. 35. Article: Pline.," says he, "is one of the most precious monuments that have come down to us from ancient times, and affords proof of an astonishing amount of erudition in one who was a warrior and a statesman. To appreciate with justice this vast and celebrated composition, it is necessary to regard it in several points of view—with reference to the plan proposed, the facts stated, and the style employed. The plan proposed by the writer is of immense extent—it is his object to write not merely a Natural History in our restricted sense of the term as an account merely, more or less detailed, of animals, plants, and minerals, but a work which embraces astronomy, physics, geography, agriculture, commerce, medicine, and the fine arts—and all these in addition to natural history properly so called; while at the same time he continually interweaves with his narrative information upon the facts which bear relation to man considered metaphysically and the history of nations—so much so indeed, that in many respects this work was the Encyclopædia of its age. It is impossible in running over, however cursorily, such a prodigious number of subjects, that the writer should not have made us acquainted with a multitude of facts, which, as they are remarkable in themselves, are the more precious from the circumstance that at the present day he is the only author extant who relates them. It is to be regretted, however, that the manner in which he has collected and grouped this mass of matter has caused it to lose some portion of its value, from his mixture of fable with truth, and more especially from the difficulty, and in some cases the impossibility, of discovering exactly of what object2: This, however, is not the fault of Pliny, but the result of imperfect tradition. To have described every object minutely that he has mentioned and of which he has given the peculiar properties, would have swollen his book to a most enormous size, almost indeed beyond conception. he is speaking. But if Pliny possesses little merit as a critic, it is far..."