XX , LIEE AND WRITINGS OE PLINT. 
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 affords 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 should 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- 
1 Biographie TJniverselle. Yol. 35. Art. Fline. 
' This, however, is not the fault of PHny, but the result of imperfect 
tradition. To have described every object minutely that he has named, 
