xlviii PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



that of the publication of the Q.N. We are now con- 

 cerned rather with the relation of the contents of the two 

 works. Gibbon (Decline and Fall, chap, xiii.) speaks of 

 "that immense register where Pliny has deposited the 

 discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind." Nor 

 is the description unjust. The work is of portentous 

 length, extending to thirty-seven Books ; it treats of an 

 enormous variety of subjects, physical, geological, geo- 

 graphical, ethnographical, botanical, medical, etc., many of 

 which are now quite dissociated from the title, Natural 

 History. Pliny seems to have read everything that 

 existed in writing on the various subjects included, and 

 his array of authorities attached to the contents of each 

 Book is very imposing. 1 But unfortunately his judgment 

 does not appear to have been equal to his industry. Every- 

 thing is recorded, credible and incredible, whether derived 

 from trustworthy literature or based on mere report : a 

 more uncritical congeries of truth and error it would be 

 difficult to imagine. 



Book II. deals with the constitution of the universe, 

 including astronomical and meteorological phenomena, 

 such as Meteors, Halos, Eclipses, Winds, Earthquakes, 

 Rain, etc., etc. Many of these cover the same ground 

 as the Q.N. Among the domestic authors cited for this 

 Book are M. Varro, Livy, Cornelius Nepos, Caecina, 

 " who wrote on the Etruscan cult " ; among the foreign 

 authors are Plato, Anaximander, Democritus, Archimedes, 

 Aristotle, etc., etc. The omission of Seneca from the 

 Latin list is balanced by that of Theophrastus from 

 the Greek list. It is, of course, unsafe to build any 

 theory on a merely negative basis. Obviously Pliny had 

 read at any rate portions of these authors, to whom he 

 elsewhere refers, and may, through mere oversight or negli- 

 gence, have omitted specific mention of them here : he 

 usually refers to authors and not to their individual works. 

 If, at the time of the composition of Book II., which may 



1 He claims to have read about 2000 volumes of 100 choice authors, but 

 his lists seem to include a much larger number of names 1 46 Roman and 

 327 foreign writers. See Teuffel, Rom. Lit. vol. ii., under Pliny the Elder. 

 Cf. Dill, op. fit. p. 146 and note. 



