198 History of Nature. [BooK III. 



them they called the Islands Electridse, wherein is produced 

 Amber, which they call Electrum : a very certain Argument 

 to prove the Vanity of the Greeks ; inasmuch as the matters 

 they assigned to him were never known. Opposite lader is 

 Lissa ; and certain others over against the Liburni, called 

 Creteae : and as many of the Liburni, Celadusse. Opposite 

 Surium is Brattia, commended for Oxen and Goats. Issa, 

 inhabited by Roman Citizens, and Pharia with the Town. 

 Next to these, Corcyra, surnamed Melsena ; with the Town 

 of the Guidii, distant 22 Miles : between which and Illy- 

 ricum is Melita ; from whence (as Callimachus) testifieth) 

 the little Dogs Melitaei took their Name 1 ; and twelve Miles 

 from thence, the three Elaphites. In the Ionian Sea, from 

 Oricum 1000 Miles, is Sasonis, well known for the Station of 

 Pirates. 



1 There were two islands called Melita : one of them between Sicily 

 and Africa, famous for the shipwreck of St. Paul ; and from which, Strabo 

 says, the Melitean or Maltese dogs took their name. The other Melita 

 was on the coast of Illyria ; and from this, other authors besides Pliny 

 suppose these favourite animals to have been derived. Wern. Club. 



Note. The reader will have observed in the preceding chapters a 

 strange diversity of opinion in the mind of the author : for whilst he 

 ascribes every ominous appearance to the deities presiding over the affairs 

 of men, yet, in other passages, he expresses his doubts as to their ex- 

 istence, or would limit to the earth itself the controlling power ; in other 

 words, he believed the earth to be a deity. From these incongruities we 

 can derive but one opinion, namely, that, heathen as he was, Pliny never- 

 theless doubted the truth of that which his countrymen and other heathen 

 nations believed, whilst he fell short of that true knowledge which, in 

 and before his day, had been vouchsafed to many like himself, who from 

 heathenism were converted to Christianity, either through the evidence 

 of miracles, by which its truth was supported, or through the opening of 

 the eyes of the understanding, by which means they acknowledged that 

 which seemed a mystery before. Considering these chapters in this light, 

 much interest is added to the style and spirit in which our author wrote. 

 Wern. Club. 



