P L I 
ufeful arts. The names of all tbofe who conferred thcfe 
important benefits on mankind, are individually recorded 
on the authority, no doubt, of more ancient writers 
whofe works are loft. Indeed, in his prefatory addrefs to 
the emperor Vefpafian, he informs us, that he condenfed 
into his hiftory the fubftance of two thoufand volumes ; 
and, in another paflage of his work, that it contains an 
abridgment of fifty volumes written by Ariftotle. 
Pliny’s work may be divided into four parts s Natural 
Hiftory, including Phyfical Geometry ; Geography ; Ru¬ 
ral Economy; and Materia Medica. 
1. On the fubjedls of Natural Hiftory, befides his maf- 
terly view of various other departments of that moft al¬ 
luring fcience, his moft eloquent, truly phiiofophical, and 
profound, difquifitions, concerning the ftrntture, the 
economy, and the inftinffs, of the inferior animals, can¬ 
not fail to excite the reader’s admiration. The truth of 
this remark might be fubftantiated by various quotations 
from his hiftory ; we can, however, here afford room for 
only one paflage from the preface of his Treatife on In¬ 
fers. “ In great bodies, (fays he,) Nature had a large 
and eafy (hop to work upon obfequious matter; whereas 
in thefe fo fmall, and, as it were, no bodies, what ftri- 
king marks of reafon, what power, what exquifite per¬ 
fection, are obl'erved ! Where has Nature placed the 
fenfes of a gnat ? where is the feat of its fight, of its tafte, 
of its fmell ? where has fhe fixed the organs of that terri¬ 
ble and moft fonorous voice? with what artifice has fhe 
fet on its wings, extended its legs, and formed its fto- 
mach and belly ; given it a keen thirft for blood, efpeci- 
ally for human blood ! with what ingenuity has (lie fur- 
nifhed it with a weapon to perforate the fkin, and, work¬ 
ing in a compafs hardly vifible equally well as on the 
largeft fcale, has made that weapon at once fharp for 
piercing, and hollow for fucking up ! what teeth has fhe 
given to the wood-loufe for perforating the hardeft oak, 
as is manifeft by the found it makes, and has given it its 
chief fuftenance from wood ! We admire the turret¬ 
bearing fhoulders of the elephant, the neck of the bull, 
and its power of tolling aloft with fury its enemy, the ra¬ 
vages of the tiger, and the mane of the lion ; whereas the 
power-of Nature is never fo confpicuoufiy feen as in the 
lmalleft things.” 
2. Of his geographical enquiries, the moft important, 
perhaps, are his ftridures on the interior parts of Africa. 
He derived the fources of his information on this fubjefl 
from the Carthaginians ; and, from what he has recorded 
refpefting the nature and produce of thefe interefting re¬ 
gions, more peculiarly interefting to us on account of the 
exertions of the Society inliituted for the laudable pur- 
pofe of meliorating the condition of their long-injured 
inhabitants, it is evident, that the ancients were better 
informed than the moderns concerning this quarter of 
the globe. 
3. In refpeCf to rural economy, of all the ancient wri¬ 
ters de re ruftica , Pliny is incomparably the moft fcienti- 
fic and interefting. He has not indeed indulged in fuch 
minute and practical details on hufbandry as Cato, Vir¬ 
gil, Columella, and others, have done, who exclufively 
limited their refearches to the ftate of agriculture among 
the Romans; but his obfervations on the properties of 
foil, on the phyfiology and pathology of efculent plants, 
more el'pecially of fuch of the cerealia and leguniina as 
were cultivated in his time, invite, and will amply re¬ 
ward, the attention of every phiiofophical agriculturift. 
4. The Materia Medica exclufively occupies fifteen 
books of the Natural Hiftory, and conftitutes a very cu¬ 
rious and interefting department of the author’s invefti- 
gations; although we mull ccnfefs, that, difgufted by the 
dogmatical preteufions, and the difcordant views of the 
various fefts of ancient phyficians, he was no friend to 
the profeflion of which himfelf was an ornament. 
It cannot be denied that Pliny difcovers his ignorance 
in particular points ; and that he records, with great gra¬ 
vity, many abfurd fables and anile ftories. But he per- 
Vol. XX. No. 14.02. 
N Y. G93 
haps might have adopted the language of Quintus Cur- 
tius, Equidcv.i plura tranfcribo qunm credo, (lib. ix. cap. 
1.) and, we find that he occafionally difcovers a proper 
degree of fcepticifm on various points which come under 
his review', and direfts his fevere rebukes again ft the va¬ 
nity and felf-confidence of the Greek authors, from 
whom he derived his information; and, notwithftanding 
all thecenfure to which he is obnoxious on the fcore of 
credulity, it cannot be too frequently repeated, that his 
inftruftive hiftory will, to the end of time, conftitute a 
monument of the author's indefatigable induftry, and of 
that proud independent Roman fpirit which he breathes 
in every page. 
The ftyle of Pliny is lefs pure than that of the preced¬ 
ing age of Latinity, and is frequently drained and ob- 
fcure; it has, however, great energy, and is often fingu- 
larly pidlurefque. The nature of the fubjefls, and the 
concife manner in which they are ufually touched upon, 
have rendered the author’s meaning in many places very 
difficult to elicit, and have given much employment to 
critics and commentators. Indeed, more technical 
knowledge than ufually falls to the fliareof a philologiffc 
is requilite for the elucidation of his obfcurities. In 
philoiophy he chiefly inclined to the epicurean dodlrines, 
though occafionally with a turn to fcepticifm. His views 
of man and of his deftiny are gloomy and querulous, and 
he denies the immortality of the foul. His moral fenti- 
nients, however, are pure. 
The editions of Pliny’s Natural Hiftory were nume¬ 
rous at an early period ; and many learned men employed 
theinfelves in correfling the text, which was extremely 
corrupt in the MSS. The celebrated Hardouin was one 
of the moft fuccefsful and induftrious of thefe, and his 
edition in 5 vols. 4to. Paris, 1685, was much fuperior to 
any former one. It has been followed by feveral later 
editors ; but in 1779 Brotier gave a new edition at Paris, 
in 6 vols. iamo. with a great number of additional cor¬ 
rections. Monthly Mag. for Jan. 1811. 
PLINY the Younger, or Caius Plinius CiECiLius 
Secundus, born at Novocomum, the modern Como, in 
the reign of Nero, A. D. 62, was the fon of L. Ctecilius 
of that place, by a filler of the elder Pliny. He was fenr 
early to Rome for education, and, after perfecting himfelf 
in the Greek language, was placed under the tuition of 
the celebrated malter in rhetoric, Quintilian, and the fo- 
phift Nicetes. His proinifing difpofition and talents 
caufed him to be adopted by his uncle Pliny, and deftined 
to be the heir of his name and fortune. He was in his 
eighteenth year when the eruption of Vefuvius took 
place, which proved fatal to his uncle, and the account 
of that cataftrophe is taken from a letter of his, w ritten 
long after, to his friend Tacitus. It thence appears that 
he had imbibed his relation’s ardour for iludy, which 
caufed him rather to remain reading Livy than to ac¬ 
company his uncle to a nearer view of fo interefting a 
phenomenon. He continued fo intenfely occupied with 
his book, that it was with difficulty his mother could pre¬ 
vail upon him to quit Mifenum during the fubfequent 
earthquake. This was the affedlation of a young man; 
but it foreboded that kind of ollentation in his charac¬ 
ter, which, amidft many excellencies, was a permanent 
foible. He began to plead caufes at the age of nineteen ; 
but his forenfic labours were interrupted by a campaign 
in Syria, with the rank of military tribune. He did not, 
however, intermit his literary purfuits in that fituation ; 
but availed himfelf of the prefence of the philofophers 
Euphrates and Artemidorus, who had been baniflied from 
Rome, with the other profefl'ors of philofophy, by Vefpa- 
fian. After his return to Rome he affiduoufly followed 
the bufinefs of the forum, and undertook many important 
caufes before the centumviri. His reputation for elo¬ 
quence flood fo high, that there w\as a great confluence 
of auditors whenever he fpoke, and he was greeted with 
loud applaufes, in which thejudges t’nemfelves fometimes 
joined. In the early part of Domitian’s, reign he was 
8 O * much 
