IT LIFE AND WHITINGS OF PLINY. 



time : a record of all that was excellent or useful ; but this 

 record has in it features so grand, this compilation contains 

 matter grouped in a manner so novel, that it is preferable to 

 most of the original works that treat upon similar subjects." 

 The judgment pronounced by Cuvier on Pliny's work, 

 though somewhat less highly coloured, awards to it a high 

 rank among the most valuable productions of antiquity. 

 " The work of Pliny V' says he, " is one of the most precious 

 monuments that have come down to us from ancient times, 

 and aifords proof of an astonishing amount of erudition in 

 one who was a warrior and a statesman. To appreciate 

 with justice this vast and celebrated composition, it is 

 necessary to regard it in several points of view — with re- 

 ference to the plan proposed, the facts stated, and the 

 style employed. The plan proposed by the writer is of 

 immense extent — it is his object to write not merely a 

 Natural History in our restricted sense of the term, not 

 an account merely, more or less detailed, of animals, plants, 

 and minerals, but a work which embraces astronomy, phy- 

 sics, geography, agriculture, commerce, medicine, and the 

 fine arts — and all these in addition to natural history pro- 

 perly so called ; while at the same time he continually 

 interweaves with his narrative information upon the arts 

 which bear relation to man considered metaphysically, and 

 the history of nations, — so much so indeed, that in many 

 respects this work was the Encyclopaedia of its age. It was 

 impossible in running over, however cursorily, such a pro- 

 digious number of subjects, that the writer sliould not have 

 made us acquainted with a multitude of facts, which, while 

 remarkable in themselves, are the more precious from the 

 circumstance that at the present day he is the only author 

 extant who relates them. It is to be regretted however that 

 the manner in which he has collected and grouped this 

 mass of matter, has caused it to lose some portion of its 

 value, from his mixture of fable with truth, and more espe- 

 cially from the difficulty, and in some cases, the impossibi- 

 lity, of discovering exactly of what object^ he is speaking. 

 But if Pliny possesses little merit as a critic, it is far other- 



^ Biographie Universelle. Vol. 35. Art. Pline. 



* This, however, is not the fault of Pliny, but the result of imperfect 

 tradition. To have described every object minutely that he has named, 



