216 
pliny's natural history. 
[Book XIT. 
formerly lay concealed, are now revealed for our indiscriminate 
use? 
Still, by Hercules I at the present day there are none to he 
found who have any acquaintance with much that has been 
handed down to us by the ancient writers ; so much more 
comprehensive was the diligent research of our forefathers, or 
else so much more happily employed was their industry. It 
is a thousand years ago since Hesiod,^ at the very dawn, so to 
say, of literature, first gave precepts for the guidance of the 
agriculturist, an example which has since been followed by no 
small number of writers. Hence have originated considerable 
labours for ourselves, seeing that we have not only to enquire 
into the discoveries of modern times, but to ascertain as well 
what was known to the ancients, and this, too, in the very 
midst of that oblivion which the heedlessness of the present 
day has so greatly tended to generate. ' What causes then are 
we to assign for this lethargy, other than those feelings which 
we find actuating the public in general throughout all the 
world ? New manners and usages, no doubt, have now come 
into vogue, and the minds of men are occupied with subjects 
of a totally different nature ; the arts of avarice, in fact, are 
the only ones that are now cultivated. 
In days gone by, the sway and the destinies of states were 
bounded by their own narrow limits, and consequently the 
genius of the people was similarly circumscribed as well, 
through a sort of niggardliness that was thus displayed by 
^Fortune : hence it became with them a matter of absolute 
necessity to employ the advantages of the understanding: 
kings innumerable received the homage of the arts, and in 
making a display of the extent of their resources, gave the 
highest rank to those arts, entertaining the opinion that it was 
through them that they should ensure immortality. Hence it 
was that due rewards, and the various works of civilization, were 
displayed in such vast abundance in those times. For these 
later ages, the enlarged boundaries of the habitable world, 
and the vast extent of our empire, have been a positive injury. 
Since the Censor has been chosen for the extent of his property, 
since the judge has been selected according to the magnitude of 
his fortune, since it has become the fashion to consider that 
^ In allusk)n to his poem, the " Works and Days," the prototype of 
YirgiFs Georgics. 
