in question moved away from its own constellation, and became the third or middle one in the tail of the Greater Bear, where it received the name of 'Aλúπŋ§. "the Fox." (Ideler, Sternnamen, p. 145.)—From their rising in the spring, the Pleiades were called by the Romans Vergilia. (Festus.-Isidor., Orig., 3, 70.) This constellation appears to have been one of the earliest that were observed by the Greeks. It is mentioned by Homer (Il., 18, 483, seqq. Od., 5, 272, seqq.); and in Hesiod an acquaintance with it is supposed to be so widely spread, that the daily labours of the farmer can be determined by its rising and setting. (Hes., Op. et D., 383, 615) The metrical form of the name is IInλniúdes and IIɛλɛládes, and hence some have been led into the erroneous opinion, that the name of the constellation was derived from #éλɛiɑ, a “pigeon” or “ dove," in allusion to the fancied appearance of the cluster. (Schwenk, Mythol. Skizz., p 2.) The Pleiades are assigned on the celestial sphere to a position in the rear of Taurus. (Hy-question, that is, in the second year of his reign, Pliny gin., Poet. Astron., 20.) Proclus and Geminus, however, place them on the back of the animal; while Hipparchus makes them belong, not to Taurus, but to the foot of Perseus. (Theon. ad Arat., Phan., 254. -Völcker, Mythol. der Iap. Geschl., p. 78.)-II. The name of Pleiades was also given to seven tragic writers, and the same appellation to seven other poets, of the Alexandrean school. (Vid. Alexandrina Schola, near the conclusion of the article.) covered there relative to several of its members It was at Comum, too, that the younger Pliny, so well known by his Letters, and the nephew of the naturalist, was born. Pliny the Elder came to Rome at an early period, and attended the lectures of Appion, but it does not appear that he saw the Emperor Tiberius, the latter having already retired to Capreæ. From the account which he gives of the jewels which he saw at Lollia Paulina's, it has been supposed, that, notwithstanding his youth, he assisted occasionally at the court of Caligula. His attention was attracted, even at this early period, by the interesting productions of nature, and particularly by the remarkable animals which the emperors exhibited in the public spectacles. He relates in detail, and as an eyewitness, the particulars of a combat in the presence of the Roman people, with a large monster of the deep, which had been taken alive in the harbour of Ostia. This event having taken place while Claudius was constructing the port in could not have been at that time more than about nineteen years of age. We learn from himself, that, about his twenty-second year, he resided for a time on the coast of Africa, where he witnessed the change of sex in the case of Larius Cossicius, who, from having been, as was supposed, a girl, found himself transformed, the very day of his marriage, into a boy! Some modern writers have supposed, on no very strong grounds, however, that at this age Pliny served PLEIONE, one of the Oceanides, who married Atlas, in the Roman fleet, and that he visited Britain, Egypt, king of Mauritania, by whom she had twelve daughters, and Greece. It appears, on the contrary, from the and a son called Hyas. Seven of the daughters were testimony of his nephew, that he was employed, while changed into a constellation called Pleiades, and the yet quite young, in the Roman armies in Germany. rest into another called Hyades. (Ovid, Fast., 5, 84.) He there served under Lucius Pomponius, whose PLEMMYRIUM, a promontory of Sicily, in the imme- friendship he gained, and who intrusted him with the diate neighbourhood of Syracuse, and facing the island command of a part of the cavalry. He must have of Ortygia, forming with this island the entrance to the availed himself very fully of this opportunity to exgreat harbour of that city. Its modern name is Mas-plore the country of Germany, since he informs us sa d'Olivera. (Dorvill. Sic., p. 191.-Thucyd., 7, 4. that he had seen the sources of the Danube, and had -Wesseling, ad Diod. Sic., vol. 6, p. 555, ed. Bip.) also visited the Chauci, a tribe that dwelt on the borIt was fortified by Nicias during the siege of Syracuse ders of the ocean. It was during the operations in by the Athenians, as being well adapted by its situa-Germany that he wrote his first work, in which he tion for receiving supplies by sea; and here also he treated of the art of hurling a javelin from on horseerected three forts or castles, the largest of which con- back (De Jaculatione Equestri). His second work, tained all the warlike implements, and the provisions which was a Life of Pomponius, in two books, was of the army. At a subsequent period of the war, the dictated by his strong attachment to that commander, Athenians were compelled to abandon this post, and and by the gratitude which he felt towards him for his fortified themselves near Dascon, in its vicinity. (Thu- numerous favours. A dream which he had during cyd., l. c.-Id., 7, 23.) The position of Pleinmyrium this same war, and in which the shade of Drusus apmay be regarded as one of the early causes of the fail-peared to him and urged him to write that prince's ure of the expedition against Syracuse; for, as the memoirs, induced him to engage in a literary enterplace was destitute of fresh water, and the soldiers had prise of great labour, that of writing, namely, the histo go to a distance for it, numbers of them were cut tory of all the wars carried on in Germany by the Rooff from day to day by the Syracusans. (Letronne, ad mans, and which he executed eventually, in the com. Thucyd., 7, 4, p. 76.—Göller, de situ et origine Syr-pass of twenty books. Having returned to Rome acusarum, p. 76, seqq.) PLEUMOXII, a people of Gallia Belgica, tributary to the Nervii. Their precise situation is unknown. Lemaire places them in the vicinity of Tornacum, now Tournay. (Ind. Geogr., ad Cas., p. 339.-Cas., B. G., 5, 39.) about the age of thirty years, he there pleaded several causes, according to the custom of the Romans, who were fond of allying the profession of arms to the prac tice of the bar. He passed, also, a part of his time at Comum, where he superintended the education of his nephew; and it was probably with the view of being PLINIUS, I. Secundus, C., surnamed the Elder, and useful to the latter that he composed a work entitled also the Naturalist, a distinguished Roman writer, Studiosus, in which he began with the orator from his born of a noble family, in the ninth year of the reign cradle, and conducted him onward until he had reachof Tiberius, A.D. 23. St. Jerome, in his Chronicle ed the perfection of his art. Judging from a quotaof Euschius, and a Life of Pliny ascribed to Sueto- tion made by Quintilian, we are led to infer that, in nius, make him to have been a native of Comum; but this work, Pliny even pointed out the manner in which since, in the dedicatory epistle prefixed to his Natural the orator should regulate his dress, his person, his History, he calls Catullus his compatriot (conterra deportment on the tribunal, &c. It appears, that du neum), and since Catullus was born at Verona, this last-ring the greater part of the reign of Nero, Pliny rementioned city has disputed with Comum the honour mained without employment. His nephew informs of having given birth to the naturalist, and writings us, that, towards the close of Nero's reign, when the without number have been elicited by the controversy. terror inspired by that monster prevented any one from One thing, however, is certain, that the Plinian family was settled at Comum, and possessed a large property in the neighbourhood, and inscriptions have been dis devoting his attention to pursuits a little more liberal and elevated than ordinary, Pliny composed a work in eight books, entitled Dubit Sermonis, which was without doubt, a grammatical treatise on the precise | duced, and of the most remarkable human inventions. signification and use of words. And yet it is difficult, Four books are then devoted to terrestrial animals, to if we follow chronological computation, not to believe fishes, to birds, and to insects. The species belongthat Nero named him his procurator in Spain; for it ing to each class are arranged according to their size is certain, from the words of his nephew, that he filled or importance: their habits, their useful or hurtful this office: he himself mentions certain observations properties, and their most remarkable characteristics made by him in this country, and we find no other are also discussed. At the end of the book on insects period in his life in which he could have gone thither. he speaks of certain substances produced by animals, We may presume that he continued in Spain during and of the parts that compose the human frame. Botthe civil wars of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and even any occupies the largest space in the work. Ten during the first years of the reign of Vespasian. It books are devoted to an account of plants, their culwas during this period that he lost his brother-in-law; ture, their uses in domestic economy and the arts, and and, being unable, by reason of his absence abroad, to five to an enumeration of their medicinal properties. become his nephew's guardian, the care of the latter Five others treat of the remedies derived from aniwas intrusted to Virginius Rufus. On his return, mals; and in the last five Pliny treats of metals, miPliny would seem to have stopped for a time in the ning, earths, stones, and the employment of the latter south of Gaul; for he describes, with remarkable ex- for the purposes of life, for the calls of luxury, and for actness, the province of Narbonensis, and, in particular, the arts; while under the head of colours he makes the fountain of Vaucluse. He informs us that he saw mention of the most celebrated paintings, and under in this quarter a stone said to have fallen from heaven. the head of stones and marbles treats of the finest pieVespasian, with whom he had been on intimate terms ces of statuary and the most valuable gems. It is imduring the wars in Germany, gave him a very favour- possible but that, in even rapidly running over this able reception, and was in the habit of calling him to prodigious number of subjects, Pliny should make us him every morning before sunrise; which, according acquainted with a multitude of remarkable facts, and to Suetonius and Xiphilinus, was a privilege reserved which are the more valuable to us as he is the only by that emperor only for his particular friends. It author that relates them. Unhappily, however, the cannot be affirmed, with any great degree of certainty, manner in which he has collected and stated them that Vespasian elevated Pliny to the rank of senator. makes them lose a large portion of their value, as well Some writers state, moreover, though without any from his mingling together the true and the false, in proof, that Pliny served in the war of Titus against the an almost equal degree, as more particularly from the Jews. What he remarks concerning Judæa is not difficulty, and, in some cases, the impossibility, of dissufficiently exact to induce us to believe that he speaks covering exactly to what creatures he alludes. Pliny from personal observation; and, besides, we can hard- was not such an observer of nature as Aristotle; still ly assign to any other part of his life except this, the less was he a man of genius sufficient to seize, like composition of his work on the History of his own this great philosopher, the laws and the relations by Times, in thirty-one books, and forming a continua- which nature has regulated her various productions. tion of that of Aufidius Bassus. If Fliny, however, He is, in general, nothing more than a mere compiler, did not serve in the Jewish war, he was not less the and often, too, a compiler unacquainted himself with friend of Titus on that account, having been his com- the things about which he collects the opinions of othpanion in the course of other contests; and it was to ers, and, consequently, unable to appreciate the true this prince that he dedicated the last and most impor- force of these opinions, or sometimes even to comtant of his writings, his Natural History, in thirty-seven prehend their exact meaning. In a word, he is a books. The titles given to Titus in the dedication writer almost entirely devoid of critical acumen, who, show that this laborious work was concluded in the after having passed a large part of his time in making 78th year of our era; and it is evident that it must extracts from the works of others, has arranged them have occupied the greater part of his life to collect under certain chapters, adding thereunto, from time to together the materials. This great work is the only time, his own reflections, which have nothing to do one of Pliny's that has come down to us. It forms, with scientific discussion, properly so called, but either at the same time, one of the most valuable monuments present specimens of the most superstitious belief, or left us by antiquity, and is a proof of the most aston- are the declamations of a chagrined philosopher, who ishing industry in a man whose time was so much oc- accuses, without ceasing, men, nature, and the gods cupied, first by military affairs, and subsequently by themselves. We must be careful, therefore, not to those of a civil nature. In order fully to appreciate regard the facts which he has accumulated in their rethis vast and celebrated work, we must regard it un-lations to the opinion which he himself forms; bat der three different aspects; its plan, its facts, and its we must restore them in thought to the writers from style. The plan is an immense one. Pliny does not whom he has derived them, and then apply to them propose to himself to write merely a natural history, in the rules of sound criticism, in conformity with what the restricted sense in which we employ the phrase we know of the writers themselves, and the circum at the present day, that is, a treatise, more or less de- stances in which they found themselves placed. Stud tailed, respecting animals, plants, and minerals; he ied in this way, the Natural History of Pliny presents embraces in his plan astronomy, physics, geography, one of the richest mines of learning, since, according agriculture, commerce, medicine, and the arts, as well to his own statement, it contains extracts from more as natural history properly so called; and he contin- than two thousand volumes, written by authors of evually mingles with his remarks on these subjects a ery description, travellers, historians, geographers, phivariety of observations relative to the moral constitu- losophers, physicians, &c.; authors, with many of tion of man and the history of nations: so that, in whom we only become acquainted in the pages of many respects, his work may be regarded as having Pliny. A comparison of his extracts with the origi. been in its day a sort of encyclopædia. After having nals themselves, where the latter have come down to given, in his first book, a kind of table of contents, us, and more particularly with the writings of Aris and the names of the authors who are to supply him totle, will show that Pliny, in making his selections, with facts and materials, he treats, in the second, of was far from giving the preference, on every occasion, the world, the elements, the stars, &c. The four fol- to what was most important or most exact in the lowing books give a geographical sketch of the then authors whom he consulted. He appears, in general, known world. The seventh treats of the different ra- to have a strong predilection for things of a singular ces of men, and of the distinctive qualities of the hu- or marvellous nature; for such, too, as harmonize man species, of the great characters which it has pro- more than others with the contrasts he is fond of insti tuting, or the reproaches he is in the habit of making by the ancients in the arts, and certain particulars of against Providence. He does not, it is true, extend an historical and geographical nature, of which we an equal degree of credence to everything that he re- would have been ignorant without his aid. That porlates, but it is at mere random that he either doubts or tion of his work which is devoted to the arts is the affirms, and the most puerile tales are not always those one that merits the most careful study. He traces which most excite his incredulity. There is not, for their progress, he describes their products, he names example, a single fable of the Greek travellers, con- the most celebrated artists, he indicates the manner cerning men without heads, others without mouths, in which their labours are conducted, and it cannot be concerning men with only one foot, or very long ears, doubted but that, if well understood, he would make which he does not place in his seventh book, and that, us acquainted with some of those secrets by means of too, with so much confidence as to terminate this cat- which the ancients executed works that we have only alogue of wonders with the following remark: "Hac been able imperfectly to imitate. Here again, howalque talia ez hominum genere, ludibria sibi, nobis ever, the difficulties of his nomenclature present themmiracula, ingeniosa fecit natura." We may without selves; he names numerous substances, they are subdifficulty, therefore, after observing this facility in giv- stances that must enter into compositions, or be subing credence to ridiculous stories about the human jected to the operation of the arts, and yet we know species, form an idea of the degree of discernment not what they are. With difficulty are we enabled to which Pliny has exercised in his selection of authori- divine the nature of a few, by means of certain rathties respecting animals either entirely new or but little er equivocal characteristics that are related of them; known. Hence the most fabulous creations, marti- and hence it is that we may be said to be in want, even chori with human heads and the tails of scorpions, at the present day, of a true commentary on Pliny's winged horses, the catoblepas whose sight alone was Natural History, a work that would require the most able to kill, play their part in his work by the side of extensive acquaintance with every department of physthe elephant and lion. And yet all is not false, even ical knowledge.-If, however, Pliny has but little merit in those narratives that are most replete with falsities, for us as a critic and a naturalist, the case is different We may sometimes detect the truth which has served with regard to his talents as a writer, and the immense them for a basis, by recalling to mind that these are treasure of Latin terms and forms of expression with extracts from the works of travellers, and by supposing which the abundance of his materials obliged him to that ignorance, and the love of the marvellous, on the supply himself, and which make his work one of the part of ancient travellers, have led them into these richest depôts of the Roman tongue. It has been exaggerations, and have dictated to them those vague justly remarked, that without Pliny it would be imposand superficial descriptions, of which we find so great sible to re-establish the Latin language; and this rea number even in modern books of travels. Another mark must be understood, not only with regard to very important defect in Pliny is that he does not al- words, but also their various acceptations, and the turn ways give the true sense of the authors whom he trans- and movement of sentences. It is certain, also, that lates, especially when designating different species of wherever he can indulge in general ideas or philoanimals. Notwithstanding the very limited means sophic views, his language assumes a tone of energy possessed by us at the present day of judging with any and vivacity, and his thoughts somewhat of unexdegree of certainty respecting this kind of error, it is pected boldness, which make amends for the dryness easy to prove that on many occasions he has substi- of previous enumerations, and may find favour for tuted for the Greek word, which in Aristotle desig-him with the generality of his readers, and atone in nates one kind of animal, a Latin word which belongs some degree for the insufficiency of his scientific into one entirely different. It is true, indeed, that one dications. It must be confessed, at the same time, of the greatest difficulties experienced by the ancient however, that he is too fond of seeking for points and naturalists was that of fixing a nomenclature, and their antitheses; that he is occasionally harsh; and that, on vicious and defective method shows itself in Pliny many occasions, his language is marked by an obscu more than in any other. The descriptions, or, rather, rity which arises less from the subject-matter than from imperfect indications, which he gives, are almost al- the desire of appearing sententious and condensed. ways insufficient for recognising the several species, But he is everywhere dignified and grave, everywhere when tradition has failed to preserve the particular full of love for justice and of respect for virtue; of name; and there is even a large number whose names horror for cruelty and baseness, of which he had before alone are given, without any characteristic mark, or his eyes such fearful examples; and of contempt for any means of distinguishing them from one another. that unbridled luxury which had so deeply corrupted If it were possible still to doubt respecting the advan- the spirit of his countrymen. In this point of view tages enjoyed by the modern over the ancient meth- Pliny cannot be too highly praised; and, notwithstandods, these doubts would be completely dispelled, on ing the defects that we are compelled to notice in him discovering that almost all the ancient writers have when we view him as a naturalist, we may still regard said relative to the virtues of their plants is com-him among the most distinguished writers, and those pletely valueless for us, from the impossibility of dis- most worthy of the epithet of classic, that flourished tinguishing the individual plants to which they refer. after the age of Augustus.-In his religious princiOur regret, however, on this account, will be great-ples, Pliny was almost an atheist, or, at least, he acly diminished, if we call to mind with how little care knowledged no other deity but the world; and few phithe ancients, aud Pliny in particular, have designated the medical virtues of plants. They attribute so many false and even absurd properties to those plants which we know, that we may be allowed to be very indifferent respecting the virtues of those which we do not know. If we believe that part of Pliny's work which treats of the materia medica, there is no human ailment for which nature has not prepared twen-to posterity. The elder Pliny was then at Misenum, ty remedies; and, most unfortunately, for the space of two centuries after the revival of learning, medical men took great pleasure in repeating these puerilities. As regards the facts, therefore, detailed in his work, Pliny possesses at the present day no real interest, except as regards certain processes followed losophers have explained the system of Pantheism, more in detail, and with greater spirit and energy, than he has done in his second book—The Natural History was Pliny's last work, for he perished the year after its publication. The particulars of his death are given in a letter of the younger Pliny to the historian Tacitus, who was anxious to transmit an account of it in command of the fleet which was appointed to guard retired to rest, and it is most certain he was so little discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep; for, being pretty fat, and breathing hard, those who attended without actually heard him snore. The court which led to his apartment being now almost filled with stones and ashes, if he had continued there any time longer, it would have been impossible for him to have made his way out: it was thought proper, therefore, to awaken him. He got up, and went to Pomponianus and the rest of his company, who were not unconcerned enough to think of going to bed. They consulted together whether it would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now shook from side to side with frequent and violent concussions, or fly to the oper fields, where the calcined stones and cinders, though light indeed, yet fell in large showers, and threatened destruction. In this distress they resolved for the fields, as the less dangerous situation of the two: a resolution which, while the rest of the company were hurried into it by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and deliberate consideration. They went out, then, having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins; and this was their whole defence against the storm of stones that fell around them. It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the most obscure night; which, how peared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just returned from taking the benefit of the sun, and, after bathing himself in cold water, and taking a slight repast, had retired to his study. He immediately arose and went out upon an eminence, from whence he might more distinctly view this very uncommon appearance. It was not, at that distance, discernible from what mountain this cloud issued, but it was found afterward to ascend from Vesuvius. I cannot give you a more exact description of its figure than by resembling it to that of a pine-tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a trunk, which extended itself at the top into a sort of branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it advanced upward, or the cloud itself, being pressed back again by its own weight, expanded in this manner: it appeared sometimes bright, and sometimes dark and spotted, as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders. This extraordinary phænomenon excited my uncle's philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He ordered a light vessel to be got ready, and gave me the liberty, if I thought proper, to attend him. I rather chose to continue my studies, for, as it had happened, he had given me employment of that kind. As he was coming out of the house, he received a note from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the ut-ever, was in some degree dissipated by torches, and most alarm at the imminent danger which threatened her; for the villa being situated at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, there was no way to escape but by the sea; she earnestly entreated him, therefore, to come to her assistance. He accordingly changed his first design, and what he began with a philosophical, he pursued with a heroic, turn of mind. He ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but several others; for the villas stand extremely thick on that beautiful coast. When hastening to the place from whence others fled with the utmost terror, he steered his direct course to the point of danger, and with so much calmness and presence of mind as to be able to make and dictate his observations upon the motion and figure of that dreadful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain, that the cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, together with pumice-stones, and black pieces of burning rock. They were likewise in danger, not only of being aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain, and obstructed all the shore. Here he stopped to consider whether he should return back again; to which the pilot advising him, Fortune,' said he, befriends the brave; carry me to Pomponianus.' Pomponianus was then at Stabiæ, separated by a gulf, which the sea, after several insensible windings, forms upon the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board; for, though he was not at that time in actual danger, yet, being within the view of it, and, indeed, extremely near, if it should in the least increase, he was determined to put to sea as soon as the wind should change. It was favourable, however, for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in the greatest consternation. He embraced him with eagerness, encouraging and exhorting him to keep up his spirits; and, the more to dissipate his fears, he ordered the baths to be got ready with an air of complete unconcern. After having bathed, he sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, or, at least (what is equally heroic), with all the appearance of it. In the mean time the eruption from Mount Vesuvius flamed out in several places with much violence, which the darkness of the night contributed to render still more visible and dreadful. But my uncle, in order to sooth the apprehensions of his friend, assured him it was only the burning of the villages, which the country people had abandoned to the flames. After this he other lights of various kinds. They thought proper to go down farther upon the shore, to observe if they might safely put out to sea; but they found the waves still running extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught or two of cold water, threw himself down upon a cloth which was spread for him, when immediately the flames, and a strong smell of sulphur, which was the forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of the company, and obliged him to rise. He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants, and instantly fell down dead; suffocated, as I conjecture, by some gross and noxious vapour, having always had weak lungs, and being frequently subject to a difficulty of breathing. As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after, his body was found entire, and without any marks of violence upon it, exactly in the same posture as he fell, and looking more like one asleep than dead.” (Plin., Ep., 6, 16, Melmoth's transl.)—The eruption here mentioned is evidently the one of which many historians have made mention, and which, occurring in the first year of the reign of Titus, destroyed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.-The younger Pliny, in a letter to Macer (3, 5), where he gives a list of his uncle's works, states, that he died at the age of fifty-six years. We cannot, therefore, comprehend how Sammonicus Serenus, and, after him, Macrobius, St. Jerome, and St. Prosper, have made him live until the twelfth year of the reign of Trajan, unless they have confounded together the uncle and nephew.The younger Pliny gives an interesting account of his uncle's indefatigable application. You will wonder," he observes, in another of his letters, “how a man so engaged as he was could find time to compose such a number of books, and some of them, too, upon abstruse subjects. But your surprise will rise still higher when you hear that for some time he engaged in the profession of an advocate; that he died in his fifty-sixth year; that, from the time of his quitting the bar to his death, he was employed in the highest posts and in the service of his prince. But he had a quick apprehension, joined to unwearied application. In suminer he always began his studies as soon as it was night; in winter, generally at one in the morning, but never later than two, and often at midnight. No man ever spent less time in bed, insomuch that he would sometimes, without retiring from his book, take a short sleep and then pursue his studies. After a short and light repast at noon (agreeably to the good 46 old custom of our ancestors), he would frequently, in younger Pliny made considerable progress even at an the summer, if he was disengaged from business, re- early age. His uncle had given him a careful educapose himself in the sun; during which time some au- tion; he composed a Greek tragedy when only fourthor was read to him, from which he made extracts teen, and wrote Latin verses on several occasions and observations, as, indeed, was his constant method, throughout his life. His principal attention, however, whatever book he read: for it was a maxim of his, was devoted to the study of eloquence; and he had that no book was so bad but something might be for instructors in this department the celebrated Quinlearned from it.' When this was over, he generally tilian, and others of the most eminent men of the day. went into the cold bath, and, as soon as he came out Pliny, as we have already remarked, was nearly eigh of it, just took some slight refreshment, and then re- teen years of age at the time of his uncle's death. posed himself for a little while. Thus, as if it had One year after this he appeared as a pleader at the been a new day, he immediately resumed his studies bar. In his twentieth year he served as a tribune in till supper-time, when a book was again read to him, Syria, and remained eighteen months in that country. upon which he would make some hasty remarks. I On his return to Rome he was appointed one of the remember once, his reader having pronounced some questors of the emperor. The duties of these funcword wrong, a person at table made him repeat it tionaries consisted in reading to the senate the reagain, upon which my uncle asked his friend if he un- scripts of the prince. Not long after he became triderstood it. The other acknowledging that he did, bune of the people. At the age of thirty he was apWhy, then, said he, would you make him go back pointed prætor; and after this he passed several years again? We have lost by this interruption above ten in retirement, in order not to attract the notice of lines: so covetous was this great man of his time. Domitian. He would not, however, have escaped the In summer he always rose from supper by daylight, fate which threatened all the eminent men of the day, and in winter as soon as it was dark and this was had it not been for the death of Domitian, since there an invariable rule with him. Such was his manner of was found among the papers of the latter a denuncialife amid the noise and hurry of the city; but in the tion of Pliny, which had recently been sent to the emcountry his whole time was devoted to study without peror. Nerva and Trajan recalled him to the disintermission, excepting only when he bathed. But in charge of public duties, and the latter prince appointthis exception I include no more than the time he was ed him administrator of the public treasury, an office actually in the bath, for all the time he was rubbed which he filled for the space of two years. After atand wiped he was employed either in hearing some taining to the high offices of consul and augur, Pliny book read to him, or in dictating himself. In his was appointed by Trajan to the government of Bithyjourneys he lost no time from his studies; but his mind nia, a province in which many abuses existed, and at those seasons being disengaged from all other which it required a man of ability and integrity to rethoughts, applied itself wholly to that single pursuit. move. (Epist., 10, 41.) Pliny was then in his fortyA secretary constantly attended him in his chariot, first or forty-second year. The trust so honourably who, in the winter, wore a particular sort of warm committed to him he seems to have discharged with gloves, that the sharpness of the weather might not great fidelity; and the attention to every branch of occasion any interruption to his studies; and, for the his duties, which his letters to Trajan display, is pecusame reason, my uncle always used a chair in Rome. liarly praiseworthy in a man of sedentary habits, and I remember he once reproved me for walking: You accustomed to the enjoyments of his villas, and the might,' said he, employ those hours to more advan- stimulants of literary glory at Rome. He remained in tage: for he thought all time lost not given to study. his government for the space of two years, and it was By this extraordinary application he found time to during this period (A.D. 107) that he wrote his celewrite so many volumes, besides one hundred and sixty brated letter to Trajan respecting the Christians in his which he left me, consisting of a kind of common- province. (Epist., 10, 97.) This letter, and the emplace, written on both sides, in a very small character; peror's reply, furnish numerous important testimonials so that one might fairly reckon the number consider to the state of Christianity at that early day, and to ably more." (Cuvier, Biogr. Univ., vol. 35, p. 67, the purity of Christian principles. The period of seqq.) The best edition of Pliny is that forming part Pliny's death is quite uncertain; he is generally sup of the collection of Lemaire, Paris, 1827–32, 11 vols. posed, however, to have ended his days A.D. 110, in 8vo. The following editions are also valuable that the forty-ninth year of his age.-His character, as a of Dalechamp, Paris, 1587, fol.; that of Hardouin, husband, a master, and a friend, was affectionate, kind, Paris, 1723, 3 vols. fol. (reprinted with additions and and generous. He displayed also a noble liberality toimprovements from the edition of 1685, in 5 vols. wards Comum, his native place, by forming a public 4to); and more particularly that of Franzius,. Lips., library there, and devoting a yearly sum of three hun 1778-91, 10 vols. 8vo. There is also a French trans- dred thousand sesterces, for ever, to the maintenance lation, in 20 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1829-33, by De Grand- of children, born of free parents, who were citizens of sagne, with annotations by some of the most eminent Comum.-A man like Pliny, of considerable talents and scientific men in France. It is an excellent work.-learning, possessed of great wealth, and of an amiable II. C. Plinius Cæcilius Secundus, surnamed, for distinction' sake, the " Younger," was born at or near Comum, about the sixth year of the reign of Nero, or A.D. 61. His mother was a sister of the elder Pliny; and as he lost his father, Lucius Cæcilius, at an early age, he removed, with his surviving parent, to the house of his uncle. Here he resided for some years, and, having been adopted by his uncle, took the name of the latter in addition to his parental one of Cæcilius. Pliny the younger appears to have been of a delicate constitution, and even in his youth to have possessed little personal activity and enterprise; for, at the time of the famous eruption of Vesuvius, when he was between seventeen and eighteen, he continued his studies at home, and allowed his uncle to set out to the mountain without him. It was on this occasion that the latter lost his life. In literature, however, the --- and generous disposition, was sure to meet with many friends, and with still more who would gratify his vanity by their praises and apparent admiration of his abilities. But as a writer he has done nothing to entitle him to a very high place in the judgment of posterity. Still, however, no Roman, from the time of Cicero, acquired so high a reputation for eloquence. All his discourses, however, are lost, with the single exception of the Panegyric on Trajan. Pliny, having been appointed consul, addressed to the emperor a discourse, in which he thanked him for the honour bestowed, and, at the same time, eulogized the character and actions of the prince. It was delivered in open senate, and was then enlarged and published. (Epist., 3, 18.) This production belongs to a class of compositions, the whole object of which was to produce a striking effect, and it must not aspire to any greater reward. It is in |