Cljap. 77.] THE COMPARATITE TALUES OF THINGS. 465 



copper, and iron, so long as it was deemed lawful to work 

 them/^ Italy was beld inferior to no country whatsoever. At 

 the present day, teeming as she is with these treasures, she 

 contents herself with lavishing upon us, as the whole of her 

 bounties, her various liquids, and the numerous flavours yielded 

 by her cereals and her fruits. Next to Italy, if we except the 

 fabulous regions of India, I would rank Spain, for my own 

 part,^ those districts, at least, that lie in the vicinity of the sea.»" 

 She is parched and sterile in one part, it is true ; but where 

 she is at all productive, she yields the cereals in abundance, 

 oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind. In all these re- 

 spects, Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on the other 

 hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartum^^ and her 

 specular stone,^^ the products of her desert tracts, in her pig- 

 ments that minister to our luxuries, in the ardour displayed by 

 her people in laborious emploj^ments, in the perfect training 

 of her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in 

 their general resoluteness of character. 



As to the productions themselves, the greatest value of 

 all, among the products of the sea, is attached to pearls : 

 of objects that lie upon the surface of the earth, it is crystals 

 that are most highly esteemed: and of those derived from 

 the interior, adamas,^^ smaragdus,'« precious stones, and murr- 

 hine," are the things upon which the highest value is placed. 

 The most costly things that are matured by the earth, m-e 

 the kermes-berry^^ and laser f^ that are gathered Irom trees, 

 nard^ and Seric tissues ;2 that are derived from the trunks of 

 trees, logs of citrus^- wood ; that are produced by shrubs, ciu- 



91 It having been in recent times declared unlawful to work them, as 

 be has already informed us. 



-2 "Quacuuque ambitur mari." With these words the Natural His- 

 tory of Pliny terminates in all the former editions. M. lau was the fiisfc 

 among the learned to express a suspicion that the proper termination of 

 tlie work was wanting; an opinion in which Sillig coincided, and which 

 was happily confirmed, in the course of time, bv the discovery of tlie Bam- 

 berg MS., the only copy of tlie Natural History (or rather the last Six 

 Books) in which the concluding part of this Chapter has been found. 



»^ See B. xix. c. 7. 9i See B. xxxvi. c. 45. 



^^ See Chapter 15 of this Book. 96 See Chapter 16 of this Book. 



97 See Chapters 7, 8, and 11 of this Book. 



98 "Coccum." See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4. 



99 See B. xix. c. 15, and B. xxii.' c. 49. i See B. xii. c. 26. 



2 See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xii. c. 1. ^ gee B. xiii. e. 29, and B. xv. c. 7. 



VOL. vr. 11 ij 



