PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



BOOK XX 



I. From this point we are going to deal with a Tfie kitehen- 

 mnst important work of nature, namely to tell man '""""• 

 his projier foods, and to force him to acknowledge 

 that his mcans of hving are unknown to him. No- 

 bodv shoukl he deceived by the meanness of the 

 names into considering this a petty or trifling task. 

 Herein will be tokl of Nature at peace or at war with 

 herself, along with the hatreds and friendships of 

 things deaf and dumb, and even without feeUng, 

 Moreover, to increase our wonder, all of them are for 

 the sake of mankind. The Greeks have applied the 

 terms " sympathv " and " antipathv " to t.his basic 

 principle of all things : water putting out fire ; the 

 sun absorbing watcr while the moon gives it birth ; 

 each of these heavenly bodies suffering eclipse 

 through the injustice of the other. Furthermore, 

 to lcave the more heavenly regions, the magnetic 

 stone draws iron to itself while another kind of 

 stone repcls it ; the diamond, the rare dehght of 

 Wcalth, unbreakable and invincible by all other 

 force, is broken by goat's blood. Other marvels, 

 tr^qually or even more wonderfulj we shall speak of 

 iii tlieir proper place. I only ask pardon for begin- 

 'ling witli trivial though healthful objects. First I 

 shall deal with kitchen-garden plants. 



3 



