76 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



have copied chiefly in his zoological descriptions, it 

 will he seen that Pliny, in making his selections, was 

 far from giving the preference, on every occasion, to 

 what was most important or most exact in the 

 authors whom he consulted. He appears in general 

 to have a strong predilection for things of a singular 

 or marvellous nature ; for such, too, as harmonise 

 more than others with the contrasts he is fond of in- 

 stituting, or the reproaches he is in the habit of 

 making against the religious opinions of his age. 

 He does not, it is true, extend an equal degree of 

 credit to every thing that he relates, hut his doubts 

 and his belief seem to be taken up very much at 

 random, and the most puerile tales are not always 

 those which most excite his incredulity. Hence the 

 most fabulous creatures manticori with human 

 heads and the tails of scorpions winged horses 

 mouthless or one-legged men catoblepas, whose 

 sight alone was able to kill, play their part in his 

 work by the side of the elephant and the lion.* And 



* Though we have given the opinion of Cuvier nearly in 

 his own words, we have said we consider that distinguished 

 naturalist to be too severe in his animadversions on the cre- 

 dulity and implicit confidence of Pliny in the fabulous 

 wonders which he narrates. Some authors have gone so 

 far as to call him a contemptible impostor the Mendez 

 Pinto of antiquity. Both the one and the other of these 

 accusations have arisen, we are persuaded, from not attend- 

 ing to the circumstances in which Pliny wrote, or to what 

 he himself says by way of caution to his readers. In gene- 

 ral he names his authority for what he relates, and qualifies 

 his statements by giving them as the reports of others. 



