16 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 
(23-79 A.D.), the Roman general and littérateur (Fig. 2). 
His works on natural history, filling thirty-seven volumes, 
have been preserved with greater completeness than those of 
other ancient writers. Their overwhelming bulk seems to 
have produced an impression upon those who, in the nine- - 
teenth century, heralded him as the greatest naturalist of 
Fic. 2.—P.iny, 23-79 A.D. 
antiquity. But an examination of his writings shows that 
he did nothing to deepen or broaden the knowledge of nature, 
and his Natural History marks a distinct retrograde movement. 
He was, at best, merely a compiler—‘‘a collector of anec- 
dotes ”’—who, forsaking observation, indiscriminately mixed 
fable, fact, and fancy taken from the writings of others. 
He emphasized the feature of classification which Aristotle 
had held in proper subordination, and he replaced the clas- 
