of Edinburgh, Session 1881-82. 
435 
long dormant volcano, and assuming the shape of a pine tree ; its 
alternate brightness and discoloration by earth and cinders ; the offer 
of the uncle to take his nephew in the vessel ordered for his own 
use ; the whispered apology for his continuance of his studies, 
couched in the remark that “by chance he had given me something 
to write ” (which I agree with Dean Merivale in thinking delicious) ; 
the uncle’s change of purpose in consequence of a message from an 
inhabitant of Retina ; the nights rest there, and the flight of the 
party at dawn with pillows tied around their heads, as some defence 
against the showers of stones ; the thick darkness, deeper than that 
of night, which soon obscured the daylight ; the fall and suffocation 
of the uncle ; the flight of the mother and her son from their home, 
on the just ground that it must be the wish of their relative that 
they should live, whatever had been his fate ; the terrified crowds ; 
the earthquake which rocked the chariots ; the withdrawal of the 
sea, leaving many marine animals on the shore ; the dark cloud 
behind, with its serpentine outbursts of flame ; the shrieks of women, 
the screams of children, the cries of men for parent, wife, and child ; 
the discharge, of which the bulk happily missed them, but yet 
showered ashes so heavily that it was needful to shake them off from 
time to time ; the conviction of all (which to Pliny himself was a con- 
solation) that the world’s last day had come, — all this and more is 
told with wondrous power. — I only say, that it is not evidence upon 
the question now before us. 
Recognising the just praise due to Tacitus for his inquiries, and 
the amount of good feeling as well as literary skill displayed in this, 
as in so many of the younger Pliny’s epistles, let me be pardoned if 
I prolong this digression one moment longer by a brief reference to 
the elder Pliny. Influenced at least in theory, I fear, by that 
Epicurean philosophy which had undermined belief in the future, 
he was Stoical, in the best sense of the word, in the nobleness of his 
attachment to the idea of duty. One of the defenders of his country, 
— he was admiral of the Roman fleet stationed off Misenum, — Pliny, 
without neglect of the service, devoted all his leisure to study, a 
combination of pursuits not unknown in the annals of this Society. 
Inferior in the true scientific temper, I suppose, to an Aristotle or an 
Archimedes, he nevertheless produced a work on natural history 
which still lives, and which has been translated into all European, 
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