INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 197 



organization, or lead him to adopt the method of induction, 

 which is the only safe means of generalizing results. 



Beginning with pantheistic considerations, Pliny descends 

 from the celestial regions to terrestrial objects. He recognizes 

 the necessity of representing the forces and the glory of na- 

 ture (natures vis atque majestas) as a great and comprehen- 

 sive whole (I would here refer to the motto on the title of my 

 work), and at the beginning of the third book he distinguishes 

 between general and special geography ; but this distinction 

 is again soon neglected when he becomes absorbed in the dry 

 nomenclature of countries, mountains, and rivers. The great- 

 er portions of Books VIII.-XXVII, XXXIII. and XXXIV., 

 XXXVI. and XXXVII., consist of categorical enumera- 

 tions of the three kingdoms of nature. Pliny the Younger, 

 in one of his letters, justly characterizes the work of his un- 

 cle as " learned and full of matter, no less various than Na- 

 ture herself (opus diffusum, eruditum, nee minus varium 

 quam ipsa naturd}." Many things which have been made 

 subjects of reproach against Pliny as needless and irrelevant 

 admixtures, rather appear to me deserving of praise. It has 

 always afforded me especial gratification to observe that he 

 refers so frequently, and with such evident partiality, to the 

 influence exercised by nature on the civilization and mental 

 development of mankind. It must, however, be admitted, 

 that his points of connection are seldom felicitously chosen (as, 

 for instance, in VII., 24-47 ; XXV., 2 ; XXVI., 1 ; XXXV, 

 2 ; XXXVI. , 2-4 ; XXXVII, 1). Thus the consideration 

 of the nature of mineral and vegetable substances leads to the 

 introduction of a fragment of the history of the plastic arts, 

 but this brief notice has become more important, in the pres- 

 ent state of our knowledge, than all that we can gather re- 

 garding descriptive natural history from the rest of the work. 



The style of Pliny evinces more spirit and animation than 

 true dignity, and it is seldom that his descriptions possess any 

 degree of pictorial distinctness. We feel that the author has 

 drawn his impressions from books and not from nature, how- 

 ever freely it may have been presented to him in the different 

 regions of the earth which he visited. A grave and somber 

 tone of color pervades the whole composition, and this senti- 

 mental feeling is tinged with a touch of bitterness whenever 

 he enters upon the consideration of the conditions of man and 

 his destiny. On these occasions, almost as in the writings of 

 Cicero, although with less simplicity of diction,* the aspect of 



* " Est enim animorum iiigenioru tuque naturale quoddam quasi pab 



