X PREFACE. 



investigations has changed its aspect ; and his credu- 

 lity is gravely urged against him as a crime which his 

 exposure of much error and superstition is not thought 

 sufficient to outweigh. Some of the matters which he 

 announces, it is true, might well have shaken the 

 strongest tendency to belief : and Herodotus, when re- 

 porting similar occurrences which had been narrated 

 to him, is known to have carefully separated between 

 what was given on the authority of others, and on his 

 own responsibility. On the other hand, it must be 

 borne in mind, that a proneness to belief in the case of 

 natural wonders was the feature -of the age ; and had 

 these been omitted, the author would have incurred 

 censure on this ground an accusation, the reverse, 

 doubtless, of what is now advanced, but which would, 

 nevertheless, have affected his character for fidelity. 



There is, moreover, reason to believe that he has 

 softened down much of the wonderful which he ex- 

 tracted from other authors, and the following coinci- 

 dence may be regarded as giving confirmation to this 

 estimate of Pliny's discretion. When Aulus Gellius 

 landed at Brundusium, on his passage from Athens to 

 Rome, he found on the book-stalls some bundles of 

 Greek works, which he read with eager curiosity. But, 

 with every disposition to credit the authorities, he calls 

 some of the narratives of Aristeas, Isigonius, Ctesias, 

 Onesicritus, Polystephanus, and Hegesias, unheard 

 of and incredible. Accordingly, in making extracts 

 from these volumes, which bore marks of having been 

 much read, it would appear that he passed by those 

 incidents which were most absurd, and selected such 

 only as he deemed worthy of further inquiry. The 

 selections thus made are found remarkably to corre- 



