46 
MEMOIR OF PLINY. 
in many places liis diction is marked by an obscurity 
which arises less from tire subject than from a desire 
of appearing sententious and condensed. 
As to his genera] plan, Pliny is ivonderfully regu- 
lar and methodical, considering the enormous number 
and diversity of topics which his work embraces. It 
was not merely a Natural History that he undertook 
to compose, in the restricted sense in which we em- 
ploy the phrase at the present day ; that is, a treatise 
more or less detailed, respecting animals, plants, anti 
minerals ; his project was far more comprehensive, 
including astronomy, geography, physics, agricul- 
ture, commerce, medicine, and the arts, as well as 
natural science properly so called. Moreover, he 
continually mingles tvith his remarks on those sub- 
jects a variety of observations relative to the moral 
constitution of man, and the history of nations. 
The work is divided into thirty-seven books, and 
is dedicated, as already mentioned, to Vespasian; 
although some French writers have supposed, fi-om 
the change of style and other internal evidence, 
that the dedication was not written by Pliny. The 
first book gives merely a kind of summary or table 
of contents, and the names of the authors who are 
to supply him with facts and materials. The second 
book treats of the universe ; the form, figure, and 
motions of the heavens ; the seven planets, in the 
midst of which moves the sun, the ruler of all things ; 
the four elements, — fire, air, earth, and water ; the 
nature of the fixed stars ; eclipses of the sun and 
