BOOK II.] History of Nature. 101 



were sown in her ; and being once bred, to sustain them. 

 That they proved venomous the Fault was to be laid upon 

 the Parents that engendered them, and not to her. For she 

 entertaineth no more a Serpent l after it hath stung a Man : 

 nay, she requireth punishment for them that are slow and 

 negligent of themselves to seek it. She bringeth forth mecli- 

 cinable Herbs, and evermore produces Something good for 

 Man. Moreover, it may be believed, that in compassion to 

 us, she appointed Poisons 2 , that when we were weary of Life, 

 cursed Famine (most adverse of all others to the Merits of 

 the Earth) should not consume us with pining Consump- 

 tion ; that lofty Precipices should not dash our Bodies to 

 pieces ; nor the preposterous Punishment by the Halter dis- 

 tort our Necks, and stop that Breath which we seek to be rid 

 of: last of all, that we might not seek our Death in the Sea, 

 and so be Food for Fishes ; nor yet the Edge of the Sword 

 mangle our Body, and so inflict extreme Pain. It is, there- 

 fore, in Compassion to us that she hath brought forth that 

 by which, in one gentle and easy Draught, we might die 

 without any Hurt of our Body, and without diminishing one 

 Drop of our Blood : without grievous Pain, and like them 

 that be athirst: that being in this Manner dead, neither 

 Fowl of the Air, nor wild Beast, prey upon our Bodies, but 



1 We have not met with any thing to support this strange opinion of 

 Pliny, unless the following from Sir T. Browne's " Vulgar Errors " may 

 be thought to do so : " Some veins of the earth, and also whole regions, 

 not only destroy the life of venomous creatures, but also prevent their 

 productions." Wern. Club. 



2 It was among the most awful of the customs of the Heathen, that 

 suicide was resorted to by even the most excellent men, on very slight 

 occasions. Not only are there instances where diseases of no great 

 severity were regarded as authorising this last resource, but on the least 

 disappointment or failure of success in a public undertaking it was consi- 

 dered as a point of honour, and an instance of commendable courage ; of 

 which the case of the illustrious stoic Brutus, at Philippi, is an eminent 

 instance. Pliny seems not to have imagined that no substance in nature 

 is really a poison, and that the plants and minerals so denominated are 

 only injurious when wrongly or too powerfully administered ; their more 

 concentrated strength, when properly used, only rendering them the 

 better instruments of good. Wern. Club. 



