peared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just | retired to rest, and it is most certain he was so little 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 utmost 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

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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, however, was in some degree dissipated by torches, and 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; suffo. cated, 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 summer 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

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 eighof 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 quæstors 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 supof 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 hun1778-91, 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 dis- and generous disposition, was sure to meet with many tinction' sake, the "Younger," was born at or near friends, and with still more who would gratify his vanComum, about the sixth year of the reign of Nero, or ity by their praises and apparent admiration of his abilA.D. 61. His mother was a sister of the elder Pliny; ities. But as a writer he has done nothing to entitle and as he lost his father, Lucius Cæcilius, at an early him to a very high place in the judgment of posterity. age, he removed, with his surviving parent, to the Still, however, no Roman, from the time of Cicero, house of his uncle. Here he resided for some years, acquired so high a reputation for eloquence. All his and, having been adopted by his uncle, took the name discourses, however, are lost, with the single excepof the latter in addition to his parental one of Cæcilius. tion of the Panegyric on Trajan. Pliny, having been Pliny the younger appears to have been of a delicate appointed consul, addressed to the emperor a discourse, constitution, and even in his youth to have possessed in which he thanked him for the honour bestowed, and, little personal activity and enterprise; for, at the time at the same time, eulogized the character and actions of the famous eruption of Vesuvius, when he was be- of the prince. It was delivered in open senate, and tween seventeen and eighteen, he continued his stud-was then enlarged and published. (Epist., 3, 18.) ies at home, and allowed his uncle to set out to the This production belongs to a class of compositions, the mountain without him. It was on this occasion that whole object of which was to produce a striking effect, the latter lost his life. In literature, however, the and it must not aspire to any greater reward. It is in

meditations, labouring to attain the comprehension of the absolute by contemplation; a notion borrowed from Plato, which became exaggerated in his hands. Carried away by his enthusiasm, he thought that he was developing the designs of the philosopher of the Academy, when, in fact, he exhibited his thoughts only partially and incompletely. The impetuous vivacity of his temper, which caused him perpetually to fall into rationalism to a system. His various scattered treatises were collected by Porphyry in six Enneades. He died in Campania, A.D. 270, having taught at Rome, and excited the almost superstitious veneration of his disciples.-An admirable analysis is given of the system of Plotinus by Tennemann, though occasionally somewhat obscure in its details. (Manual of the History of Philosophy, p. 187, seqq., Johnson's transl.) The best edition of Plotinus is that of Creuzer, Oxon., 1835, 3 vols. 4to. An edition of the treatise De Pulchritudine was published in 1814, 8vo, Lips., by the same editor. (Hoffmann, Lex. Bibliogr., vol. 3, p. 336.)

genious and eloquent, but by its very nature affords | perpetually occupied with profound but extravagant no room for the exercise of the higher faculties of the mind; nor will its readers, excepting those who are fond of historical researches, derive from it any more substantial benefit than the pleasure which a mere elegant composition can impart. To those, however, who are curious in matters of history, it will certainly prove interesting, since, although it only covers the early years of Trajan's sway, it nevertheless furnishes us with a number of facts, of which we should other-extravagances, prevented his reducing his mystical wise be ignorant; for what Suetonius and Tacitus wrote concerning Trajan is lost, as is the case, also, with this same portion of the history of Dio Cassius, and with the different accounts of Trajan's reign that are cited by Lampridius, in his life of Alexander Severus. Pliny is also known to modern times by his Letters. These consist of ten books, and were published by himself. From the first to the ninth book inclusive, we have letters addressed to individuals of all descriptions. The tenth book contains the letters and reports sent by Pliny to Trajan, together with some answers of that prince. The Letters of Pliny are valuable to us, as all original letters of other times must be, because they necessarily throw much light on the period at which they were written. But many of them are ridiculously studied, and leave the impression, so fatal to our interest in the perusal of such compositions, that they were written for the express purpose of publication. Among the letters of Pliny that have obtained the greatest celebrity, are the two in which he gives an account of the elder Pliny's mode of life, and of the circumstances connected with his death; two others, which contain a description of villas of his own; and one in which he gives an account of his proceedings against the Christians, and to which we have already referred. The authenticity of this last-mentioned letter has been attacked by Semler, an eminent German divine (Historia Ecclesiastica Selecta Capita, Hal., 1767, 3 vols. 8vo.-Neue Versuche die Kirch-fluence of ancient manners, and in this sweet familyen-Historie der ersten Jahrhunderte mehr aufzuklären, Leipz., 1787, 8vo). This critic maintains that the letter in question was forged by Tertullian; but his arguments, if they deserve the name, would invalidate the authority of almost every literary monument of ancient times. This same letter of Pliny's gave rise to an absurd legend at a later date, according to which, Pliny having met, in the island of Crete, with Titus, the disciple of St. Paul, was converted by him, and afterward suffered martyrdom.-The design of writing a history, which Pliny at one time entertained, he never carried into execution. (Epist., 5, 8.) The work" De Viris Illustribus" has been erroneously ascribed to him, as has also the dialogue "De Causis corrupta eloquentiæ." (Masson, Vit. Plin.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 2, p. 408, seqq.-Bähr, Gesch. Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 566, seq.)-The best edition of Pliny is that of Lemaire, Paris, 1823, 2 vols. 8vo. It is the edition of Gesner, improved by Schaeffer (Lips., 1805, 8vo), with additions by Lemaire.

PLUTARCHUS, one of the most generally known and frequently cited, and hence, if the expression be allowed, one of the most popular, writers of antiquity. He was a native of Charonea in Boeotia, but the period of his birth is not exactly ascertained. Plutarch himself informs us, that he was studying under Ammonius, at Delphi, when Nero visited Greece, which would be the 66th year of our era; and hence we may conjecture that he was born towards the close of the reign of Claudius, about the middle of the first century. Plutarch belonged to an honourable family, in which a fondness for study and literary pursuits had long been hereditary. In his early days he saw at one and the same time his father, his grandfather, and great grandfather in being; and he was brought up under this in

converse, which imparted to his character an air of integrity and goodness, that shows itself in so many of his numerous writings. In the school of Ammonius, which he attended when still quite young, and where he formed an intimate friendship with a descendant of Themistocles, he received instruction in mathematics and philosophy. Without doubt, he carefully attended also, under able instructors, to the various departments of belles-lettres, and his works plainly show that the perusal of the poets had supplied his memory with ample materials. It appears that, while still quite young, he was employed by his fellow-citizens in some negotiations with neighbouring cities. The same motive led him to Rome, whither all the Greeks possessed of any industry or talent had been accustomed regularly to come for more than a century, to seek reputation and fortunes, either by attaching themselves to some powerful individuals, or by giving public lectures on philosophy and eloquence. Plutarch, it may readily be supposed, did not neglect this latter mode PLISTHENES, a son of Atreus, king of Argos, fa- of acquiring celebrity. He himself declares, that duther of Menelaus and Agamemnon. (Vid. Agamem-ring his sojourn in Italy, he could not find time to benon, and Atridæ.)

PLOTINOPOLIS, a city of Thrace, to the south of Hadrianopolis, founded and named in honour of the Empress Plotina. On its site, at a later period, appeared the city of Didymotichos, now Demotica. (Itin. Ant., 322.-Procop., de Ed., 4, 11.)

PLOTINUS, a philosopher of the New-Platonic school, born A.D. 205, at Lycopolis in Egypt. Nature had endowed him with superior parts, particularly with an extraordinary depth of understanding, and a bold and vigorous imagination. He early manifested these abilities in the school of Ammonius at Alexandrea. Subsequently he determined to accompany the army of Gordian to the East, in order to study the Oriental systems on their native soil. He returned a dreamer,

come sufficiently acquainted with the Latin tongue, by reason of the public business with which he was charged, and the frequent conferences he had with educated men on matters of a philosophic nature, about which they came to consult him. He spoke, he professed in his own language; according to the privilege which the Greeks had preserved of imposing their idiom on their conquerors, and of making it the natural language of philosophy and letters. These public lectures, these declamations, were evidently the first germe of the numerous moral treatises that Plutarch subsequently composed. The philosopher of Cheronea exercised at Rome that profession of sophist, the very name of which is now become a byword, and the mere existence of which seems to indi

cate the decline of national literature, but which was of a piece; that he represents his heroes either as com more than once rendered illustrious at Rome by great pletely enslaved by some passion, or as perfectly virtutalents and the effects of persecution. It is well ous, and that he has not been able to depict the almost known, that, under the bad emperors, and amid the infinite variety of shades between vice and virtue. universal slavery that then prevailed, philosophy was What renders the perusal of these biographies particthe only asylum to which liberty fled when banished ularly attractive, is our seeing his personages constantfrom the forum and the senate. Philosophy, in earlier ly in action; we follow them amid public affairs, we days, had effected the ruin of the republic; it was accompany them to the scenes of private life, to the then only a vain scepticisin, abused to their own bad interior of their dwellings, and into the very bosom of purposes by the ambitious and the corrupting. Adopt- their families. "We are not writing histories," obing a better vocation, it became, at a later period, a serves Plutarch himself, "but lives. Neither is it alspecies of religion, embraced by men of resolute spirit; ways in the most distinguished exploits that men's virthey needed a wisdom that might teach them how to tues and vices may be best discerned; but frequently escape, by death, the cruelty of the oppressor, and they some unimportant action, some short saying or jest, called, for this purpose, stoicism to their aid. Plutarch, distinguishes a person's real character more than fields the most constant and the most contemptuous opposer of carnage, the greatest battles, or the most important of the Epicurean doctrines; Plutarch, the admirer of sieges. As painters, therefore, in their portraits, laPlato, and a disciple of his in the belief of the soul's bour the likeness in the face, and particularly about immortality, of divine justice, and of moral good, the eyes, in which the peculiar turn of mind most aptaught his hearers truths, less pure, indeed, than those pears, and run over the rest with a less careful hand, of Christianity, but which, nevertheless, in some de- so must we be permitted to strike off the features of gree adapted themselves to the pressing wants of he- the soul, in order to give a real likeness of these great roic and elevated minds.-It is not known whether men, and leave to others the circumstantial detail of Plutarch prolonged his stay in Italy until that period their toils and their achievements." (Vit. Alex., c. 1.) when Domitian, by a public decree, banished all phi- This reasoning of Plutarch's is no doubt very just, but losophers from that country. Some critics have sup- it supposes that the writer does not go in quest of anpos ed that he made many visits to Rome, but none ecdotes, and that he exercises a sound and rigid critafter the reign of this emperor. One thing, however, icism in the selection of those which he actually reapp ears well ascertained, that he returned, when still ceives. Such, however, is not the case with Pluyoung, to his native country, and that he remained tarch. Another defect with which he may be justly there for the rest of his days. During this his long charged, is the having entirely neglected the order sojourn in the land of his fathers, Plutarch was con- of chronology, so that frequently his narrative pretinually occupied with plans for the benefit of his sents only an incoherent mass of facts, and the perucountrymen; and, to give but a single instance of his sal of his lives leaves behind it, at times, only a zeal in the public service, he not only filled the of confused impression. On the other hand, the Lives fice of archon, the chief dignity in his native city, of Plutarch contain a treasure of practical philosophy, but even discharged with great exactness, and without of morality, and of sound and useful maxims, the the least reluctance, the duties of an inferior office, that fruit of a long experience: indeed, it may be assertof inspector of public works, which compelled him, he ed, that oftentimes these Lives are only so many histells us, to measure tile, and keep a register of the torical commentaries on certain maxims. Notwithloads of stone that were brought to him. All this ac- standing all their faults, however, the Lives of Plutarch cords but ill with the statement of Suidas, that Plu- are full of instruction for those who wish to become tarch was honoured with the consulship by Trajan. well acquainted with Greek and Roman history, since Such a supposition is contradicted both by the silence the author has drawn from many sources that are of history and the usuages of the Romans. Another closed upon us. He cherished an ardent love for liband more recent tradition, which makes Plutarch to erty, or, rather, democracy, which he confounded with have been the preceptor of Trajan, appears to rest on liberty, and he has been reproached with allowing himno better foundation, and can derive no support what- self, on certain occasions, to be so far led away by his ever from any of the genuine works of the philosopher. enthusiasm as to mistake for heroism a forgetfulness An employment, however, which Plutarch does seem of the sentiments of nature. For example, though he to have filled, was that of priest of Apollo, which con- would seem to state with impartiality the different nected him with the sacerdotal corporation at Delphi. sensations produced by the punishment of the sons of The period of his death is not known; but the proba- Brutus, and the assassination of the brother of Timobility is that he lived and philosophized until an advan-leon, still it is evident, from the manner in which he ced age, as would appear both from the tone of some of his writings and various anecdotes that are related of him. The several productions of this writer will now be briefly examined. The work to which he owes his chief celebrity is that which bears the title of Biot Tapahλnho ("Parallel Lives"). In this he gives biographical sketches of forty-four individuals, distinguished for their virtues, their talents, and their adventures, some Greek, others Roman, and gives them in such a way that a Roman is always compared with a Greek. Five other biographies are isolated ones; twelve or fourteen are lost. The five isolated lives are those of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Aratus, Galba, Otho, and Homer, though this last is probably not Plutarch's. The lives that have perished are those of Epaminondas, Scipio, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vitellius, Hesiod, Pindar, Crates the Cynic, Deïphantus, Aristomenes, and Aratus the poet.-Many regard the Lives of Plutarch as models of biography. The principal art of the writer consists in the delineation of character; but it has been objected to him, and, it would seem, with justice, that his characters are all

expresses himself, that he approves of these two actions, and that, in his eyes, the authors of them were deserving of commendation, and free from all reproach. (Sainte-Croix, Examen, &c., p. 74, 2d ed.) Plutarch, moreover, is not even entitled to the praise of being an impartial writer. The desire of showing that there was a time when the Greeks were superior to the Romans, pervades all his recitals, and prejudices him in favour of his Grecian heroes. His ignorance of the Latin tongue, which he himself avows in his Lives of Demosthenes and Cato, leads him into various errors relative to Roman history. His style has neither the purity of the Attic, nor the noble simplicity which distinguishes the classic writers. He is overloaded with erudition, and with allusions that are often obscure for us. - An able examination of the sources whence Plutarch derived the materials for his lives, is given by Heeren (De fontibus et auctoritate vitarum parallelarum Plutarchi Commentationes IV., Götting., 1820, 8vo), and this inquiry becomes indispensably necessary to the professed scholar, who wishes to ascertain the degree of confidence that is due to the

tarch here attacks the veracity of Herodotus as an historian. The latter has found an able advocate in the Abbé Geinoz. (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr., &c., vols. 30, 36, and 38.-11. Bíoc τův déka pηtópwv (" Biography of the ten Orators"). This work is evidently supposititious. Photius has inserted it in his Bibliotheca, with many omissions and additions, but without stating that it was written by Plutarch. Hence some critics have ascribed it to the patriarch himself. This piece, however, bears the stamp of an age much earlier than that of Photius.-We can only glance at the philosophical, or, as they are more commonly called, the moral, works of Plutarch. He was not a profound philosopher. He had formed for himself a peculiar system, made up from the opinions of various schools, but particularly from those of Plato and the Academicians, which he has sometimes only imperfectly understood. He detested the doc

had vowed towards their respective schools renders him sometimes unjust towards their founders. He was not free from superstition, and he pushed to excess his devotion towards the gods of paganism. His philosophical or moral works are more than sixty in number. They are full of information as regards an acquaintance with ancient philosohpy; and they have the additional merit of preserving for us a number of passages from authors whose works have perished. An analysis of these writings is given by Schöll (Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 5, p. 77, seqq.).-The best editions of the whole works of Plutarch are, that of Reiske, Lips., 1774-82, 12 vols. 8vo; that of Hutten, Tubing., 1796-98, 14 vols. 8vo, and that forming part of the Tauchnitz collection. The best edition of the Lives alone is that of Coray, Paris, 1809-15, 6 vols. 8vo; and the best edition of the Moral works is that of Wyttenbach, Oxon., 1795, 6 vols. 4to, and 12 vols. 8vo.

biographical sketches of Plutarch, though our limits | tus"). From a mistaken principle of patriotism, Pluforbid our entering on the detail. It may be said, in a few words, that Plutarch, in the composition of his Lives, consulted all the existing historians; that he did not, however, blindly follow them, but weighed their respective statements in the balance of justice, and, when their accounts were contradictory, adopted such as seemed to him most probable. The other historical works of Plutarch are the following: 1. Pwuaška, AlTiaι Popaikai (“Roman Questions"). These are researches on certain Roman usages: for example, Why, in the ceremony of marriage, the bride is required to touch water and fire? Why, in the same ceremony, they light five tapers? Why travellers, who, having been considered dead, return eventually home, cannot enter into their houses by the door, but must descend through the roof, &c.-2. 'Eλλnvikà, ǹ AiTíaι 'Eλλnvikai ("Hellenica, or Grecian Questions"). We have here similar discourses on points of Grecian antiquity.-3. IIɛpi Tapahλýλwv Eλλпvitrines of Epicurus and the Porch, and the hatred he κῶν καὶ Ῥωμαϊκῶν (“ Parallels drawn from Grecian and Roman History"). In order to show that certain events in Grecian history, which appear fabulous, are entitled to full confidence, Plutarch opposes to them certain analogous events from Roman history. This production is unworthy of Plutarch, and very probably supposititious. It possesses no other merit than that of having preserved a large number of fragments of Greek historians, who are either otherwise unknown, or whose works have not come down to us.-4. IIɛpì Tπs 'Pwμaiwv Túxns_("Of the Fortune of the Romans").-5. and 6. Two discourses πεрì τnç 'A2ɛ5ávλpov túxns ǹ úpετñs (“ On the Fortune or Valour of Alexander"). In one of these Plutarch undertakes to show that Alexander owed his success to himself, not to Fortune. In the other, he attempts to prove, that his virtues were not the offspring of a blind and capricious Fortune, and that his talents and the resources of his intellect cannot be regarded as favours bestowed by this same Fortune. These two discourses are pre- PLUTO (П20ÚTwv), called also Hades ("Aidng) and ceded by one (No. 4) which shows the true object of Aïdoneus ('Aïdwvevç), as well as Orcus and Dis, was the others. Plutarch, in this, endeavours to prove, the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and lord of the that the Roman exploits are less the effect of valour lower world, or the abode of the dead. He is deand wisdom, than the result of the influence of For- scribed as a being inexorable and deaf to supplication tune; and, among the favours conferred by this god--for from his realms there is no return-and an object dess he enumerates the unexpected death of Alexander, at the very time that he was menacing Italy with his victorious arms. In all this we clearly see the jealousy and vanity of the Greeks, who, from the time that they first fell under the Roman yoke, never ceased detracting from the glory of this republic, and ascribing its rapid progress to some blind and unknown cause. One of the motives that induced Polybius, moreover, to write his history, was to undeceive his countrymen on this point, and prove to them that the prosperity of Rome was owing, not to the caprices of Fortune, but to good conduct and valour.-7. Hóтepov 'Aonvalot KATÀ RÓŻEμOV ǹ Katà σogíav kvdožótεpol; (" Whether the Athenians are more renowned for War or for the Sciences"). The commencement and conclusion are wanting. The text of what remains of this piece is very corrupt.-8. Hɛpì 'Iσidos kai 'Ooípidos (“Of Isis and Osiris"). This treatise contains a number of very curious remarks on the Egyptian mythology, but it is, at the same time, that very one of the works of Plutarch in which his want of critical skill is most apparent. His object was to give the mythological traditions of the Egyptians a philosophical sense, in order to justify them before the tribunal of reason. Hence this treatise can only be employed with great caution in studying this branch of ancient mythology. 9. Επιτομὴ τῆς συγκρίσεως Μενάνδρου καὶ ̓ΑρισTogávovs (“ Abridgment of the Comparison between Menander and Aristophanes"). An extract, probably, from some lost work of Plutarch's.-10. Hepi Tns 'Hoodóтov kakoŋOcías (" Of the Malignity of Herodo

of aversion and hatred to both gods and men. (Il., 9, 158, seq.) All the latter were sure to be, sooner or later, collected into his kingdom. The name Hades appears to denote invisibility, being derived from a, "not," and eidw, "to see," and significatory of the nature of the realm over which he bore sway. The appellation of Pluto was received by him at a later period, and would seem to be connected with the term

ovтoç, "wealth," as mines within the earth are the producers of the precious metals. This notion Voss thinks began to prevail when the Greeks first visited Spain, the country most abundant in gold. (Mythol. Briefe, vol. 2, p. 175.) Heyne, on the other hand, is of opinion that the name in question was first given in the mysteries (ad Apollod, 3, 12, 6). It is employed occasionally by the Attic dramatists (Soph., Antig., 1200.- Eurip, Alcest., 370. — Aristoph., Plut., 727), and it became the prevalent one in later times, when Hades came to signify a place rather than a person.-The adventures of Pluto were few, for the gloomy nature of himself and his realm did not offer much field for such legends of the gods as Grecian fancy delighted in: yet he too had his love-adventures. The tale of his carrying off Proserpina is one of the most celebrated in antiquity. (Vid. Proserpina.) He loved, we are told, and carried off to Erebus the oceannymph Leuce; and, when she died, he caused a tree, named from her (2ɛvкŋ, “white poplar"), to spring up in the Elysian fields. (Servius ad Virg., Eclog., 7, 61.) Another of his loves was the nymph Mentha, whom Proserpina, out of jealousy, turned into the