182 
^likt's j^atueal histoet. 
[Book III. 
at a loss. The citj of Eome alone, which forms a portion 
of it, a face well worthy of shoulders so beauteous, how 
large a work would it require for an appropriate description ! 
And then too the coast of Campania, taken singly by itself! 
so blest with natural beauties and opulence, that it is evident 
that when nature formed it she took a delight in accumulating 
all her blessings in a single spot — how am I to do justice to 
it ? And then the climate, with its eternal freshness and so 
replete with health and vitality, the sereneness of the weather 
so enchanting, the fields so fertile, the hill sides so sunny, 
the thickets so free from every danger, the groves so cool and 
shady, the forests with a vegetation so varying and so luxu- 
"riant, the breezes descending from so many a mountain, the 
fruitfulness of its grain, its vines, and its olives so transcend- 
ent ; its flocks with fleeces so noble, its bulls with necks so 
sinewy, its lakes recurring in never-ending succession, its 
numerous rivers and springs which refresh it with their waters 
on every side, its seas so many in number, its havens and the 
bosom of its lands opening everywhere to the commerce of 
all the world, and as it were eagerly stretching forth into 
the very midst of the waves, for the purpose of aiding as it 
were the endeavours of mortals ! 
Eor the present I forbear to speak of its genius, its man- 
ners, its men, and the nations whom it has conquered by 
eloquence and force of arms. The very Greeks themselves, 
a race fond in the extreme of expatiating on their own praises, 
have amply given judgment in its favour, when they named 
but a small part of it ' Magna Grsecia^' But we must be 
content to do on this occasion as we have done in our de- 
scription of the heavens ; we must only touch upon some of 
these points, and take notice of but a few of its stars. I 
only beg my readers to bear in mind that I am thus hasten- 
^ Or "G^reat G^reece." This is a poor and frivolous argument used by 
Pliny in support of his laudations of Italy, seeing that in all probabi- 
lity it was not the people of Grreece who gave this name to certain cities 
founded by Grreek colonists on the Tarentine Grulf, in the south of Italy ; 
but either the Itahan tribes, who in their simphcity admired their splen- 
dour and magnificence, or else the colonists themselves, who, in using 
the name, showed that they clung with fondness to the remembrance of 
their mother- country ; wliile at the same time the epithet betrayed some 
vanity and ostentation in wisliing thus to show their superiority to the 
people of their mother-country. 
