18 Pliny s Epistle to T. Vespasian. [BooK I. 



nor wonderful Incidents and variable Issues ; nor any other 

 Circumstances that may be agreeable to rehearse, or pleasant 

 to hear. The Nature of all Things in this World, that is to 

 say, Matters concerning our ordinary Life, are here deli- 

 neated ; and that in barren Terms, without any Show of 

 Phrases : and what I have noted concern the commonest 

 Points thereof, so that I am to deliver the Matter either 

 in rustic, or foreign, nay, even barbarous Language, such 

 as may not well be uttered, but with Apology to the Reader. 

 Moreover, the Way that I have pursued hath not been 

 trodden before by other Writers ; being indeed so strange, 

 that no one would willingly travel therein. No Latin Author 

 among us hath hitherto ventured upon the same Argument, 

 no Grecian whatsoever hath handled all : and that because 

 most study rather to pursue Matters of Delight and Plea- 

 sure. It may be confessed, that others have made profession 

 of doing so, but they have done it with such Subtilty and 

 Deepness, that their Efforts lie as if buried in Darkness. I, 

 therefore, take upon me to gather a complete Body of Arts 

 and Sciences (which the Greeks call lyptuxXcwra/ds/og), that are 

 either altogether unknown or have been rendered doubtful 

 through too great Refinement of Ingenuity ; other Matters 

 are dealt with in such long Discourses, that they are ren- 

 dered tedious to the Readers. It is a difficult Enterprise 

 to make old Matters new, to give Authority and Credit to 

 Novelties, to polish that which is obsolete, to set a Lustre 

 upon that which is dim, to grace Things disdained, to 

 procure Belief to Matters doubtful, and, in one Word, to 

 reduce all to their own Nature. And to make the Attempt 

 only, although it be not effected, is a fair and magnificent 

 Enterprise. I am confidently of opinion, that the greatest 

 Credit belongs to those learned Men who have forced their 

 Way through all Difficulties, and have preferred the Profit 

 of instructing to the Grace of pleasing, the Gratification of 

 mere Desire of pleasing the present Age; and this I have 

 aimed at, not in this Work only, but in other of rny Books. 

 And I wonder at T. Livius, a very celebrated Writer, who, 

 in a Preface to one of his Books of the Roman History, 



