MEMOIR OF PLINY. 
53 
ficient to clad them, euery one according to their 
kind ; as, namely, shells, pods, prickes, hard hides, 
shag, bristles, haire, dotvne, feathers, quills, skales, 
an<i fleeces of wooll. Man alone, poore wretch, she 
hath layed all naked upon the bare earth, euen on 
Ids birth day, to cry and wraul presently from the 
very first houre that hee is borne, in such sort, as 
among so many lining creatures there is none sub- 
ject to shed tears and weepe like him ; and verilie to 
no babe or infant it is giuen to laugii till he bee four- 
ty dales old, and that is counted very early. O folly 
of all follies euer to thinke (considering this simple 
beginning of ours) that we were sent into this world 
to line in pride, and carie our heads aloft ! The first 
hope that we conceiue of our strength, the first gift 
that time affordeth vs, maketh vs no better tlian 
four-footed beasts.” Some of the examples of handi- 
craft mentioned by Pliny, are curious, as shewing 
the great perfection to which the manual arts had 
then arrived in Rome. “ Cicero hath recorded that 
the whole poeme of Homer, called Ilias, was written 
on a piece of parchment, which was able to be crush- 
ed vrithin a nut-shell. Callicrates vsed to make pis- 
mires, and other such like little creatures, out of yvo- 
rie, so artificially, that other men could not discevne 
the parts of their body one from another. There was 
one Myrmecides, excellent in that kinde of work- 
manship, who, of the same matter, wrouglit a clia- 
riot with foure wheels, and as many steeds, in so little 
roome, that a silly flie might couer all with her 
