«92 P L I 
as defcribed by Pliny, lib.iv. Ep. 30. This fpring burfts 
from a rock, and falls in natural cafcadesinto the lake of 
Como. It ebbs and flows three times a-day ; gradually 
riling until it forms a confiderable dream, and then as 
gradually fubfiding till it becomes alrriod dry. 
PLINLIM'MON, the higheft mountain of Wales, more 
frequently called Snowdon ; which fee. 
PLINTH, f. [from oj-AuSo;, Gr, a brick.] In architect- 
-ure, a flat fquare member, in form of a brick: fometimes, 
alfo, called the Jlippev.— The plinth is ufed as the foot, or 
foundation of columns: being that flat fquare table, 
under the mouldings of the bale and pedeftal, at the bot¬ 
tom of the whole order; feeming to have been originally 
intended to keep the bottom of the primitive wooden pil¬ 
lars from rotting. Chambers. —The plinth of a wall, is a 
term for two or three rows of bricks advancing out from 
the wall; or in the general for any flat high moulding, 
ferving in a front wall to mark the floors; or to fuflain 
the eaves of a wall, and the larmier of a chimney. Cham¬ 
bers. 
PLIN'Y the Elder, or Caius Plinius Secundus, 
having been called Pliny from his father, and Secundus 
from his mother,.was a didinguifhed Roman writer, born 
probably at Verona, in the reign of Tiberius, A. D. 23. 
He was defcended of an illuflrious family, and ferved in 
the army as a commander of cavalry during the wars in 
Germany. He rofe to various public employments, un- 
derthe emperors Nero, Vefpafian, and Titus ; was aggrega¬ 
ted to the college of augurs, and made procurator in Spain. 
There is fcarcely an example of a man of bufinefs, who was 
alfo fo devoted to fludy, or comprehended fuch an extent of 
literary refearch. His nephew, the younger Pliny, has given 
a particular account of his mode of fpending his time at 
Rome when he was poflefled of the imperial favour. Before 
day-break he waited upon Vefpafian, who was alfo an early 
rifer, and then proceeded to execute the emperor’s orders. 
On returning home, he employed all the reft of the day 
in fludy. After taking a light repaid, he reclined in the 
fun, according to the Roman cuftom, while a book was 
read to him from which he took notes; for he never pe- 
rufed any work without making extradls, as it was a 
maxim of his, “ that no book was fo bad as not to afford 
fomething valuable.” He then bathed, numbered a little, 
and, riling frefli, as if to a new day, ftudied till fupper- 
time. Even during that repaid, a reader was at his fide, 
as likewife upon all his journeys; and a vacant“hour 
never occurred which he did not employ in reading or 
writing. Of his avarice of time, his nephew gives the fol¬ 
lowing inftance. One of his friends having obliged the 
reader to repeat fomethingthat he had pronounced impro¬ 
perly, “ Did you underftand him ?” faidTliny. He con- 
fefled that he did. “Why then, (he rejoined,) did you 
flop him ? we have loft more than ten lines by the inter¬ 
ruption.” He always went from place to place in a fedan, 
that he might read the while; and reproved his nephew 
for walking, as fo much lofs of time. 
Pliny was not, however, an inattentive obferver of the 
great phenomena of nature ; and it was to his curiofity in 
this refpeft that his premature death was owing. He was 
commander of the fleet ftationed at Mifenum, when, in 
Auguft A.D. 79, a great eruption of Vefuvius broke out. 
On its firft appearance he fleered direfitly to the fpot, for 
the purpofe both of giving afliftanceto the fugitives, and 
'viewing theprogrefs of the eruption. The volcano raged 
with great fury, and fpread alarm through all the vicinity. 
While others were flying, he ordered his pilot to fleer di- 
reiffly acrofs to Stabiae, where his friend Pomponianus bad 
a villa. He there landed, and pafled the night in the 
houfe. In the mean time fliowers of allies almoft blocked 
up the apartments, while the walls were fhaken with an 
earthquake; and towards morning it appeared neceflary 
to quit the place. With pillows tied upon their heads, 
againft the falling ftones, they proceeded towards the 
fliore, to obferve if they might fafely put out to fea ; but 
they found the waves ftill ran extremely high and boif- 
N Y. 
terous. Pliny, almoft Aided with the fuffocating vapours 
threw himfelf on the ground, and called for a draught of 
cold water, which he eagerly fwallowed, when immedi¬ 
ately the flames, and a flrong fulphureous fmell which 
was the forerunner of them, difperfed the reft of the com¬ 
pany ; all of whom were eager to conluk their perfonal 
iafety by flight, the care of each individual being, in this 
extremity, concentrated in himfelf. Pliny likewife made 
an attempt to efcape. He raifed himfelf up with the af- 
fiftance of two of his fervants; but he inftantly fell down 
dead, fuffocated, as his nephew juftly conjectures, by the 
grofs and noxious vapours which he breathed. His con- 
ftitution, as it appears, was not naturally robuft, and he 
probably undermined it by his conftant and interife ap¬ 
plication to fludy. The younger Pliny informs us “ that 
his lungs were weak, and that he was frequently fubjeft 
to a difficulty of breathing.” On the third day fubfe- 
quent to this melancholy accident, his body was found 
entire, and without any marks of violence upon it, ex¬ 
actly in the fame pofture in which he fell, and looking 
more like a man afleep than dead. It was in this tremen¬ 
dous eruption that the city of Herculaneum was over¬ 
whelmed, the ruins of which have been difcovered about 
the middle of the 18th century at the diftance of fixty 
feet Wow the furface; and what is ftill more remarkable, 
forty feet below the bed of the fea. 
Pliny was born in the tenth year of Tiberius, and of 
Rome the 775th, in the confullhip of L. Afinius Pollio, 
and C. Antiftius Verus ; and had not completed his 57th 
year at his death ; being then high in reputation and dig¬ 
nity, anti in great efteem with the emperor Titus. Of his 
writings, the younger Pliny has left the following enu¬ 
meration: 1. On the Life of the Javelin on Horfeback, 
one book, compofed when he was a commander of cavalry. 
2. On the Life of his coufin Pomponius Secundus, two 
books. 3. Of the Wars in Germany, twenty books. 4.. 
On Oratory, fix books. 5. On Grammar, eight books. 
6. On the Hiftory of his own Times, thirty-one books. 
7. On Natural Hiftory, thirty-feven books. 
Of all thefe multifarious productions, his Natural Hif¬ 
tory alone has been handed down to us. The plan adopted 
by the molt inquifitive and induftrious author in this 
great work, is far more extenfive than that purfued by 
Ariftotle, and was indeed probably too unlimited to be 
grafped even by his comprehenfive intellect. Defirous of 
embracing every thing within the fcope of his work, his 
attempt appears to have been to take a meafurement of 
Nature: and he feem to have found her too confined for 
the extent of his genius. His Natural Hiftory compre¬ 
hends, independent of the hiftory of animals, plants, and 
minerals, the hiftory of the heavens and of the earth, of 
medicines, of commerce, and of navigation; a hiftory of 
the rife and progrefs of the liberal and mechanical arts; 
of the origin of cuftoms ; in fliort of all natural fciences, 
and of all human arts. 
In no department of his work, indeed, are his accuracy 
and diligence more peculiarly remarkable, than that where 
he is engaged in inveftigating the antiquity of the fads 
and arts of which he gives an account; the periods at 
which they were difcovered ; and the refpeffive merits 
and names of their inventors. When occupied with dif- 
quifitions of this nature, Pliny appears to be truly in his 
element; and he has profecuted them with no common 
fuccefs. In confirmation of thefe- remarks, the claflical 
reader may be referred to the fifty-feventh chapter of the 
feventh book, which exhibits a fine fpecimen of his pa¬ 
tient fpirit of refearch, and of his mafterly talent for in- 
veftigation. In this chapter he dives into the remote!!: 
aeras of antiquity, and records the invention of letters; 
of bricks and tiles; of building houfes with the faw, rule, 
and plummet; of the lath, augre, glue, See. of brafs; the 
difeovery of gold, and other metals; of the ufe of fhields, 
fwords, bows and arrows, boots, and other inftruments of 
war ; of the pipe, harp, and other mufical inftruments; of 
the building of lhips and navigation 5 and many other 
ufeful 
