MEMOIR OP PLINY. 29 



more. I have heard him say, when he was comp- 

 troller of the revenue in Spain, Lartius Licinius of- 

 fered him 400,000 sesterces (about L< 3:200) for these 

 manuscripts, and yet they were not then quite so 

 numerous. When you reflect on the books he has 

 read, and the volumes he has written, are you not 

 inclined to suspect that he never was engaged in 

 the affairs of the public, or the service of his prince 

 On the other hand, when you are informed how in- 

 defatigable he was in his studies, are you not dis- 

 posed to wonder that he read and wrote no more ? 

 For, on the one side, what obstacles would not the 

 business of a court throw in his way ; and on the 

 other, what is it that such intense application might 

 not perform ?" * 



Such is a description of the habits and acquire- 

 ments of this extraordinary person, recorded by one 

 who, from daily and familiar intercourse, had the 

 best opportunities of minute observation. It is to 

 the same pen that we owe the account of his death, 

 the particulars of which are better known than the 

 circumstances of his private life. At the time of 

 that melancholy event, Pliny the Naturalist was at 

 Misenum, near Naples, in command of the Roman 

 fleet, which was appointed to guard all the part of 

 the Mediterranean comprehended between Italy, 

 Gaul, Spain, and Africa. The letter containing 

 these interesting details is addressed to the well 

 known historian Tacitus, who, it appears, had ex- 

 * Plinii Eoist. lib. iii. 5. 



