1311.] 
Thus far with regard to the invaluable 
legacy which Pliny has bequeathed to 
posterity in his Natural History. In res 
spect to the excellent author, we are fur- 
ther informed by his nephew, that he was 
extremely economical of his time, and 
lived a temperate and abstemious life. 
He had a quick apprehension joined to 
unwearied application. He slept but 
little ; no man ever spentless time in bed ; 
and every hour which could be abstract- 
éd from business was devoted to study. 
He always had a person to read to him, 
while at table; and in his perambula- 
tions in quest of knowledge, he had al- 
ways a book in his hands, and was con- 
stantly attended by his amanuensis; for 
he made copious extracts from every 
work which he perused; it being amaxim 
of his, * That no book was so bad 
but something might be learned from 
es 
His assiduity in reading and writing 
was probably unparalleled. One day, 
during the repast, the reader having er- 
roneously pronounced some words, a 
certain person at table stopt him, and 
made him repeat the words again: Pliny 
asked his friend “ Whether he had un- 
derstood what the reader had been pro- 
nouncing ;” to which he replied in the 
affirmative: ‘‘ Why then,” rejoined our 
‘philosopher, “ would you have him to go 
‘back again? We have lost, by this inter- 
ruption, above ten lines.” 
Having, on another occasion, observed 
“his nephew walking without a book, he 
censured him for mis-spending his time, 
observing, ** that be might employ those 
haurs to more advantage ;” for he thought 
all was lost time which was not given to 
study. In his journeys he never relaxed 
from his stuslies, but his mind at those 
zensons being disengaged from all other 
thoughts, applied itself to that single pur. 
‘Bull, | 
I have already alluded to the scanty 
portion of time which he allotted to re- 
pdése. “In summer,” observes his ne- 
phew, “ he always began bis studies as 
soon as it was-night; im winter, generally 
atone in the morning, but never later 
than two, and often at midnight. Some- 
Aimes, without retiring from his book, he 
would take a short sleep and then pursue 
his studies.” He wrote his friend and 
SE a Rete to I aD 
illustrations as may be deemed necessary to 
elucidate the author; and, in these notes, one 
great object which I shall keep in view, will 
be to aceommodate Pliny’s descriptions of 
minerals, plants, and animals, tothe Linnean 
Nomenclature. 
° Caii Plinth Epist. lib Vis epist. Xvi, 
Memoirs of Caius Plinius Secundus the Elder. 
529, 
patron, the excellent Titus, in the follow- 
ing familiar manner: ‘ The whole day £ 
allot to business, and I reserve the night 
for reading and composition. Should I nut 
even be too happy,if this conduct procured. 
-me‘no other advantage than that of liv- 
ing longer? Sleep absorbs half the life of 
man; and it is a more certain, and a 
more legal, gain than any other, to pur- 
loin as much as possible trom More 
pheus.” 
The death of this profound and inde- 
fatigable scholar was occasioned by @ 
fatal accident, which is recorded in a 
‘minute, lively, and interesting, manner, 
by his name-sake and nephew, in a letter 
to Tacitus the historian. He was resi- 
ding at Misenum,* where he commanded 
a squadron of the Roman fleet, being 
appointed by Titus to that station. On 
the 9th of the caiends of September (24th — 
August), about one in the afternoon, 
his sister, Pliny the Younger’s mother, 
desired him to observe a cloud of a very 
unusual sizeand shape. He immediately 
repaired to an eminence in the vicinity, 
from which he might more distinctly 
view this very uncommon appearance. 
It was not at that distance discernible 
from what mountain this cloud issued; 
but it was found afterwards to ascend 
from Mount Vesuvius.t Pliny the 
Younger, 
om 
* In the gulf of Naples: so called from 
Misenus the sen of A®olus, who was drowned 
there. See Virg. neid. liv. 17.—Now 
Monte Miseno. 
+ It seems probable that this was the first 
eruption of Mount Vesuvius, at least of any 
consequence, as it is certain that we have ro 
particular account of any preceding one. Nor 
is it reasonable to suppose that so extraordi- 
nary a phenomenon would have heen passed 
over in silence by our author, had it happened 
before. He has left us a particular account 
of the eruptions of /&tna,* and if he had 
survived this catastrophe, he would unques- 
tionably have handed down an accurate dee 
scription of it to posterity. 
Dion indeed, and other ancient authors, 
speak of Mount Vesuyius as burning before this 
period; but they still describe it as covered 
with trees and vines, so that the eruptions 
to which they alluded must have been incon- 
siderable. 
This dreadful eruption happened A.D. 79, 
in the first year of the emperor Titus, Mare 
tial has a very pretty epigram upon this 
; subject 
* Mons /Etna nocturnis mirus incendiis. 
Crater ejus patet ambity stad xx. Favilla 
Tanromenium et Catinam usque pervenit 
fervens, fragor vero ad Marenem et Gemellos 
Colles.’—=C, Plinii Histor, Natural. lib. ‘iii, 
Cap. Xll. 
