MEMOIR OP PLINY. 
29 
more. I have heard iiim say, when he was comp- 
troller of the revenue in Spain, Lartius Lic_inius of- 
fered him 400,000 sesterces (about L. 32001 for these 
manuscripts, and yet they were not then quite so 
numerous. When you reflect on the books he has 
read, and the volumes he has WTitten, are you not 
inclined to suspect that he never was engaged in 
the aflairs of the public, or the service of his prince ’ 
On the other hand, when you are informed how in- 
defatigable he was in his studies, are you not dis- 
posed to wonder that he read and wrote no more ? 
For, on the one side, what obstacles would not the 
business of a court throw in his way ; and on the 
other, what is it that such intense application might 
not perform ?” * 
Such is a description of the habits and acquire- 
ments of this extraordinary person, recorded by one 
who, from daily and familiar intercourse, had tlje 
best opportunities of minute observation. It is to 
the same pen that we owe the account of his death, 
the particulars of which are better known than the 
circumstances of his private life. At the time of 
that melancholy event, Pliny the Naturalist was at 
Misenum, near Naples, in command of the Roman 
fleet, which was appointed to guard all the part of 
the Mediterranean comprehended between Italy, 
Gaul, Spain, and Africa. The letter containing 
these interesting details is addressed to the well 
known historian Tacitus, who, it appears, had ex- 
• Plinii Eoist. lib. ill. 5. 
