42 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



unbridled luxury which had so deeply corrupted the 

 taste and manners of his countrymen. In his reli- 

 gious principles he was above the grovelling and 

 puerile superstitions of his age ; but he was almost 

 an atheist, or at least he acknowledged no other deity 

 than the world ; and few philosophers have explained 

 the system of Pantheism more in detail, and with 

 greater spirit and energy than he has done, in the 

 second book of his History. Notwithstanding his 

 scepticism and his disbelief in the immortality of the 

 soul, his morality, in so far as appears, was unim- 

 peachable. The duties of a subject, a citizen, and a 

 member of society, he seems to have discharged in 

 a manner that well deserves to be imitated in more 

 improved and enlightened times. But it is chiefly 

 as a Naturalist that we must contemplate his charac- 

 ter; and though he has many faults and deficiencies, 

 he has treasured up a vast store of curious infor- 

 mation; the greater part of which, but for him, 



them a rich vintage, and all their property. Their loss is 

 irreparable." 



Another account adds: "The king and the ministers 

 hastened to the seat of the catastrophe, to console the un- 

 fortunate victims. The village of St Felix, where they first 

 took repose, had already been abandoned. The lava soon 

 poured down upon this place, and in the course of an hour 

 houses, churches, arid palaces, were all destroyed. Four 

 villages, some detached houses, country villas, vines, beau- 

 tiful groves, and gardens, which a few instants before pre- 

 sented a magnificent spectacle, now resembled a sea of fire. 

 Fifteen hundred houses, palaces, and other buildings, and 

 2500 acres of cultivated land, have been destroyed by the 

 fire. " 



