28 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



sion, excepting only when he hathed. In this ex- 

 ception I include no more than the time he was ac- 

 tually in the bath ; for while he was rubbed and 

 wiped, he was employed either in hearing some book 

 read to him, or in dictating himself. In his jour- 

 neys he lost no time from his studies ; but his mind 

 at those seasons being disengaged from all other bu- 

 siness, applied itself wholly to that single pursuit. A 

 secretary* (or short-hand writer) constantly attend- 

 ed him in his chariot, who in winter wore a parti- 

 cular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the 

 weather might not occasion any interruption to my 

 uncle's studies ; and for the same reason, in Rome 

 he was always carried in a chair. I remember he 

 once reproved me for walking. ' You might (said 

 he) employ these hours to more advantage ;' for he 

 thought every minute lost that was not given to 

 study. By this extraordinary application he found 

 time to compose the several treatises already men- 

 tioned, besides 160 volumes which he left me by 

 his will, consisting of a kind of commonplace, writ- 

 ten on both sides, in a very small character, so that 

 one might fairly reckon the number considerably 



* The words in the original, Notarius cum libra et pugil- 

 laribus, denote a writer of short-hand; an art which the 

 Romans carried to perfection, as appears from Martial : 



Currant verba licet, manus est velocius illis ; 



Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus. 



Swift though the words, the pen still swifter sped ; 

 The hand has finished ere the tongue has said. 



Epigram xiv. 208. 



