A. D. 77. 187 



produced by one man, and can be equaled by no other work, that ever 

 was produced in the world before the Encyclopedias of modern times, 

 which are compiled by the united labours of many colledors : and, what 

 is ftill more furprifing, it was but a part of many works compofed by 

 liim* before he completed the fifty-iixth year of a life, devoted not on- 

 ly to literature, but alfo to public bufmefs and ofRcial duties f . 



When Pliny wrote, Rome was in its mofl flourifhing ftate under the 

 prudent and vigorous government of Vefpafian. Grecian literature was 

 highly efteemed, the fciences were afliduoufly cultivated, and the arts 

 were encouraged by men of liberal education and ample fortune. The 

 periods of the revolutions of the planets were known ; and the theory 

 of eclipfes was underftood, or at leafl: received from the tables conftrud- 

 ed by Hipparchus. The earth was known to be of a fpherical form ; 

 though its pofition was erroneoufly fixed in the center of the univerfe. 

 But even profefled geographers, Hipparchus alone excepted, had not yet 

 difcovered, that the application of latitude and longitude to the pofition 

 of places was the very life and foul of their fcience. [Strobo, L. ii, p. 

 194 B.] And the following furprifing inftancc of ignorance in one of 

 the befl-informed of the Romans gives room for a fufpicion, that what 

 they knew of the fyfiem of the univerfe was implicitly received from 

 more enlightened nations ; and not real fcience deduced from experi- 

 ments, and founded upon rational principles. An Egyptian obeliflc had 

 been fet up at Rome by Auguflius, with tables engraved on brafs, affix- 

 ed to it, containing rules for knowing the hours by the length of the 

 fliadow. For about thirty years before Pliny wrote, thefe rules had 

 been found erroneous ; which he, as great a philofopher as he was, en- 

 deavoured to account for by earthquakes, inundations of the river, the 

 earth having moved from its center, or even the fun itfelf having wan- 

 dered out of its place ; in fhort, by any thing rather than by the obvious 

 refledion, that there might have been an error in the original calcula- 

 tion of the tables. \_Hi/l. nat. L. xxxvi, c. 10.] 



* Befides his finifhed works in one hundred and ftudy for youth, not lefs picafant, and Infinitely 



two books, there were one hundred and fixty com- more ufeful, than the abfurdities, to call them ne 



mon -place books of ftletlions, which he left to his worfe, of Ovid and Virgil. 



nephew. Tiiey were written upon both fides of the -|- The firft eruption of Vefuvius, recorded In 



paper, and very fiiiatl and clofe, lo that they were hillory, which deftroyed the cities of Herculaneum 



not iuinjfome library books, nor, indeed, books at and Pompeii, was alfo fatal to Pliny, whofe curi- 



all, but niaterlals for compofing from. Befoie ofity to examine tlie nature of that awful phaeno- 



they became fo numerous, he was offered 4,000 menon carried him fo near to It, that he was found 



nummi (^"3,229 = 3:4) for them. [P/inii £pi/loU, dead, fuffocated, as was fuppofed, by the fulphur : 



L. Hi, cp. 5.] Sucli was tlie value, even of collec- and fo his valuable life fell a facrifice to that ardent 



tions ol m^iterliils judicloufiy chofen. In thofe days, third of knowlege, which has rendered his name 



when, for want of printing, learning was confined immortal. [^P/inii Epiji. L. \\, ep. 16.] It ap- 



to the few, whom heaven had bleffcd with a tafte pears from Condaminc's Tour in linly, that the 



for it, along with the enjoyment of a plentiful for- foundations of the houf^s in Herculaneum confiR 



tune. of volcanic lava, which proves, that th^ eruption of 



Seledions from Pliny's Natural hillory, efpecl- Vefuvius, which overwhelmed that city, wa$ not, 



ally if they were accompanied with the judicious as is ufually fuppofed, the firft. 

 i-emarks of an enlightened teacher, would form a 



A a 2 



