V 
LirE a™ WRiTiis'Gis OP PLiiirT, xiii 
death. Commending liis memory to Pliny's attentive care, 
Drusus conjured him to rescue it from the decaying effect 
of oblivion. Next to these came his three books entitled 'The 
Student'^, divided, on account of their great size, into six 
volumes. In these he has given instructions for the training 
of the orator, from the cradle to his entrance on public 
life. In the latter years of Nero's reign, he wrote eight 
books, * On Difficulties in the Latin Language^ that being 
a period at which every kind of study, in any way free-spoken 
or even of elevated style, would have been rendered danger- 
ous by the tyranny that was exercised. His next work was 
his ' Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus,' in 
thirty-one books ; after which came his ' Natural History,' 
in thirty-seven books, a work remarkable for its comprehen- 
siveness and erudition, and not less varied than Nature her- 
self. Ton will wonder how a man so occupied with business 
could possibly find time to write such a number of volumes, 
many of them on subjects of a nature so difficult to be 
treated of. Tou will be even more astonished when you 
learn, that for some time he pleaded at the bar as an advo- 
cate, that he was only in his fifty-sixth year at the time of 
his death, and that the time that intervened was equally 
trenched upon and frittered away by the most weighty duties 
of business, and the marks of favour shewn him by princes. 
His genius, however, was truly quite incredible, his zeal 
indefatigable, and his power of application wonderful in the 
extreme. At the festival of the Vulcanalia^, he began to 
sit up to a late hour by candle-light, not for the purpose of 
consulting the stars, but with the object of pursuing his 
studies ; while, in the winter, he would set to work at the 
seventh hour of the night, or the eighth at the very latest, 
often indeed at the sixth ^. By nature he had the faculty of 
being able to fall asleep in a moment ; indeed, slumber would 
sometimes overtake him in his studies, and then leave him 
just as suddenly. Before daybreak, he was in the habit of 
attending the Emperor Vespasian, — for he, too, was one who 
made an excellent use of his nights, — and then betook him- 
1 " Studiosus." This work has perished. 
2 " De Dubia Sermone." A few scattered fragments of it still survive. 
3 23rd of August. ^ For astrological presages. 
. * At midwinter, this hour would answer at Eome to our midnightr^ 
