198 ENOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION 



on the civilization and mental development of mankind. His 

 points of connection, however, are seldom happily chosen 

 (vii. 24 to 47 ; xxv. 2 ; xxvi. 1 ; xxxv. 2 ; xxxvi. 2 to 4 ; 

 xxxvii. 1.) The nature of mineral and vegetable sub- 

 stances, for example, leads to a fragment of the history of 

 the plastic arts; but this fragment has become in the 

 present state of our knowledge of greater interest and impor- 

 tance than almost all which we can gather from his work in 

 descriptive natural history. 



The style of Pliny is rather spirited and lively than cha- 

 racterised by true grandeur ; he seldom defines picturesquely j 

 and we feel, in reading his work, that the author had 

 derived his impressions from books, and not from the free 

 aspect of nature herself, although he had enjoyed that 

 aspect in variodfe regions of the earth. A grave and melan- 

 choly colouring is spread over the whole, and with this 

 sentimental tone there is blended a degree of bitterness 

 whenever man and his circumstances and destiny are touched 

 upon. At such times (almost as in the writings of 

 Cicero, ( 309 ) though with less simplicity of diction), the 

 view of the great universal whole of the world of nature is 

 described as reassuring and consolatory. 



The conclusion of the Historia Naturalis of Pliny, the 

 greatest Roman memorial bequeathed to the literature of 

 the middle ages, is conceived, in the true spirit of a descrip- 

 tion of the universe. As we now possess it, since 1831, ( 31 ) 

 it contains a cursory view of the comparative natural liistory 

 of countries in different zones ; and a laudatory description 

 of Southern Europe between the natural boundaries of the 

 Mediterranean and the Alps, and of the serene heaven of 



