278 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



fine wheat has been given them which has lain for a night in 

 the spot where a human being has been slain or burnt ! 



Par from us, far too from our writings, be such prescrip- 

 tions 9 as these ! It will be for us to describe remedies only, 

 and not abominations ; 10 cases, for instance, in which the milk 

 of a nursing woman may have a curative effect, cases where 

 the human spittle may be useful, or the contact 11 of the human 

 body, and other instances of a similar nature. We do not look 

 upon life as so essentially desirable that it must be prolonged 

 at any cost, be it what it may and you, who are of that 

 opinion, be assured, whoever you may be, that you will die 

 none the less, even though you shall have lived in the midst 

 of obscenities or abominations ! 



Let each then reckon this as one great solace to his mind, 

 that of all the blessings which Nature has bestowed on man, 

 there is none greater than the death 12 which comes at a season- 

 able hour ; and that the very best feature in connexion with it 

 is, that every person has it in his own power to procure it for 

 himself. 13 



CHAP. 3. (2.) WHETHER WORDS ARE POSSESSED OF ANY 



HEALING EFFICACY. 



In reference to the remedies derived from man, there arises 

 first of all one question, of the greatest importance and always 

 attended with the same uncertainty, whether words, charms, 

 and incantations, are of any efficacy or not? 14 For if such 

 is the case, it will be only proper to ascribe this efficacy to 

 man himself ; 15 though the wisest of our fellow-men, I should 

 remark, taken individually, refuse to place the slightest faith 

 in these opinions. And yet, in our every-day life, we practi- 

 cally show, each passing hour, that we do entertain this belief, 



9 He gives a great many, however, which are equally abominable. 



10 " Piacula." 



11 We may here discover the first rudiments of the doctrine of Animal 

 Magnetism. 



12 In accordance with the republican doctrines of Cato of Utica, Brutus, 

 Cassius, and Portia. 



13 Holland remarks, " Looke for no better divinitie in Plinie, a meere 

 Pagan, Epicurean, and professed Atheist." See B. vii. cc. 53, 54. 



14 Whether or not, they cannot, as Ajasson remarks, be regarded as 

 remedies derived from the human body, being no part of the human body. 



15 " Homini acceptum fieri oportere conveniat." This passage is pro- 

 bably corrupt. 



