82 PLINY THE ELDER. 



from oblivion only through the quotations which he 

 has made from them. 



On comparing his extracts with such originals as 

 we still have^ and in particular with Aristotle, we 

 find that he was by no means accustomed to select 

 the parts that were most important or most cor- 

 rect. In general, he fixes upon the singular or 

 marvellous; upon those circumstances which an- 

 swer best for the contrasts which he is fond of mak- 

 ing, or for the reproaches which he so often prefers 

 against Providence. He certainly does not place 

 the same confidence in all that he relates ; but his 

 doubts and affirmations are made at random, and 

 the most childish stories are not those that most ex- 

 cite his incredulity. For example, there are none 

 of the fables of the Grecian travellers, about head- 

 less and mouthless men, men with only one foot, 

 or men with large ears, that he does not place in his 

 seventh book, and with so much confidence in their 

 truth, that he concludes his enumeration with this 

 remark : Hcec atque talia ex hoiuinimi genere, lu- 

 dibria sibi, nobis miracula, ingeniosa fecit na- 

 tura : '^' See how nature is disposed for the nones to 

 devise full wittily in this and such like pastimes to 

 play with mankind, thereby not onely to make her- 

 selfe merrie, but to set us a wondering at such strange 

 miracles." Any one may judge, from this creduli- 

 ty in respect to the absurd fables about the human 

 species, of the little discernment which he must have 

 exercised in selecting testimonies respecting exotic 

 or little-known animals. Accordingly, the most 

 fabulous creatures, manticores, with the head of a 

 man and the tail of a scorpion, winged horses, ca- 

 toblepas, the mere sight of which caused death, oc- 



