Supreme Being; such, for instance, as the annihilation of his own
existence; to which the author adds, the power (477) of rendering mortals
eternal, and of raising the dead. It deserves to be remarked, that,
though a future state of rewards and punishments was maintained by the
most eminent among the ancient philosophers, the resurrection of the body
was a doctrine with which they were wholly unacquainted.
The author next treats of the planets, and the periods of their
respective revolutions; of the stars, comets, winds, thunder, lightning,
and other natural phenomena, concerning all which he delivers the
hypothetical notions maintained by the ancients, and mentions a variety
of extraordinary incidents which had occurred in different parts of the
world. The third book contains a general system of geography, which is
continued through the fourth, fifth, and sixth books. The seventh treats
of conception, and the generation of the human species, with a number of
miscellaneous observations, unconnected with the general subject. The
eighth treats of quadrupeds; the ninth, of aquatic animals; the tenth, of
birds; the eleventh, of insects and reptiles; the twelfth, of trees; the
thirteenth, of ointments, and of trees which grow near the sea-coast; the
fourteenth, of vines; the fifteenth, of fruit-trees; the sixteenth, of
forest-trees; the seventeenth, of the cultivation of trees; the
eighteenth, of agriculture; the nineteenth, of the nature of lint, hemp,
and similar productions; the twentieth, of the medicinal qualities of
vegetables cultivated in gardens; the twenty-first, of flowers; the
twenty-second, of the properties of herbs; the twenty-third, of the
medicines yielded by cultivated trees; the twenty-fourth, of medicines
derived from forest-trees; the twenty-fifth, of the properties of wild
herbs, and the origin of their use; the twenty-sixth, of other remedies
for diseases, and of some new diseases; the twenty-seventh, of different
kinds of herbs; the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth, of
medicines procured from animals; the thirty-first and thirty-second, of
medicines obtained from aquatic animals, with some extraordinary facts
relative to the subject; the thirty-third, of the nature of metals; the
thirty-fourth, of brass, iron, lead, and tin; the thirty-fifth, of
pictures, and observations relative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of the
nature of stones and marbles; the thirty-seventh, of the origin of gems.
To the contents of each book, the author subjoins a list of the writers
from whom his observations have been collected.
Of Pliny's talents as a writer, it might be deemed presumptuous to form a
decided opinion from his Natural History, which is avowedly a compilation
from various authors, and executed with greater regard to the matter of
the work, than to the elegance of composition. Making allowance,
however, for a degree of credulity, common to the human mind in the early
stage of physical (478) researches, he is far from being deficient in the
essential qualifications of a writer of Natural History. His
descriptions appear to be accurate, his observations precise, his
narrative is in general perspicuous, and he often illustrates his subject
by a vivacity of thought, as well as by a happy turn of expression. It
has been equally his endeavour to give novelty to stale disquisitions,
and authority to new observations. He has both removed the rust, and
dispelled the obscurity, which enveloped the doctrines of many ancient
naturalists; but, with all his care and industry, he has exploded fewer
errors, and sanctioned a greater number of doubtful opinions, than was
consistent with the exercise of unprejudiced and severe investigation.
Pliny was fifty-six years of age at the time of his death; the manner of
which is accurately related by his nephew, the elegant Pliny the Younger,
in a letter to Tacitus, who entertained a design of writing the life of