22 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



and took refreshment and rest. Thus reinvigorated, 

 he resumed his studies until supper, when a book 

 was read to him, and he made remarks on it. 

 This, of course, must have been an occasional 

 method of passing the day, for no man could live 

 without some hours of exercise and sleep. Pro- 

 bably he retired to sleep at eight under these 

 circumstances, and had a good sleep in the hot 

 hours of the day. When in the country all his 

 time was devoted to study, except when he slept 

 and bathed. He is said to have used a carriage 

 instead of walking, and, unfortunately, but naturally, 

 he got weak lungs and became corpulent. 



Plinius laboured for many years at natural history 

 and the other sciences, and he was a most diligent 

 collector of information. A warrior and a states- 

 man, yet he contrived to write a vast number of 

 works, his books on natural history alone amounting 

 to twenty-seven volumes. He appears to have 

 known all that it was possible to know at his 

 age of the world, and yet there was no great amount 

 of new work put into his books. It has been very 

 properly said that the loftiness of his ideas and the 

 nobleness of his style enhance still more his pro- 

 found learning. Naturally, as he copied much 

 from other writers, and especially, in one part of 

 botany which relates to medicine, from an author 

 named Dioscorides, he could not examine into the 

 'truth of every statement which had been made. 

 Hence Plinius retailed some curious stories now and 

 then, which are more amusing than true j but, on 



