vegetable life change ; from this I assume that life is LITTLE 

 largely a matter of temperature and moisture." Thus JOURNEYS 

 "wrote this barbaric Roman soldier, who thereby 

 proved he was not so much of a barbarian after all. 

 QWhen he was twenty-five, his command was trans- 

 ferred to Africa, and here in moments stolen from 

 sleep, he wrote a work in three volumes on education, 

 entitled, " Studiosus." In writing the book he got an 

 education to find out about a thing, write a book 

 on it. Pliny returned to Rome and began the prac- 

 tice of law, and developed into a special pleader of 

 marked power. He still held his commission in the 

 army, and was sent on various delicate diplomatic er- 

 rands to Spain, Africa, Germany, Gaul and Greece. 

 C[If you want things done, call on a busy man the 

 man of leisure has no spare time. 



Pliny's jottings on natural history soon resolved them- 

 selves into the most ambitious plan, which up to that 

 time had not been attempted by man he would write 

 out and sum up all human knowledge. The next man 

 to try the same thing was Alexander von Humboldt. 

 C{ We now have Pliny's "Natural History" in thirty- 

 seven volumes. His other forty volumes are lost. The 

 first volume of the "Natural History," which was writ- 

 ten last, gives a list of the authors consulted. Aristotle 

 and Theophrastus take the places of honor, and then 

 follow a score of names of men whose works have 

 perished and whom we know mostly through what 

 Pliny says about them. So not only does Pliny write 

 science as he saw it, but he introduces us into a select 



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