84 PLINY THE ELDER. 



our not being able to distinguish the species to which 

 they assigned them. — Were we to give credit to 

 all that he says in the part of his work devoted 

 to Materia Medica^ there is not a disease incident 

 to humanity for which nature has not provided 

 twenty remedies; and unfortunately, during two 

 centuries after the revival of letters, all these ab- 

 surdities were confidently repeated by physicians. 

 It must therefore be admitted, that with reference 

 to facts the volume of Pliny is of no real interest, 

 excepting in regard to the manners and customs of 

 the ancients, the processes which they followed in 

 the arts, and some particulars respecting geography, 

 of which we should otherwise be ignorant.* 



The Historia Naturalis was the last work which 

 Pliny wrote, and is the only one that has come down 

 to us. It is not a treatise on natural history, as that 

 term is at present limited ; but, besides relating all 

 that he knew of animals, plants, and minerals, it em- 

 braces astronomy, geography, agriculture, commerce, 

 medicine, and the arts ; so that it may be considered 

 as a cyclopsedia rather than a publication on any par- 

 ticular subject. It is divided into thirty-seven books. 



The first contains a dedication to the Emperor 

 Titus Vespasian, together with a summary of the 

 following sections, and the names of the authors who 

 contributed to them. 



In the second book, he treats of the universe, the 

 elements, and the stars. The world and the heavens, 

 which he says are God, are infinite, without begin- 

 ning and without end ; the form of the latter is sphe- 

 rical, the motion circular, and they are impressed with 



* See Life of Pliny, by Cuvier, in the Biographie Universelle, 

 tome XXXV. p. 70. 



