ell that added to the value of
a slave, and Pliny prized his "boy" accordingly. This is but a slight
indication of the excess to which he carried his love for reading and
scribbling. If he could not read, he must scribble; so he scribbled
when out hunting! If he had been fishing with a book in his hand, that
had been excusable. But we do not believe that the Romans took
kindly to fishing as a sport. They bred their fish in private
fish-ponds--_piscinae_--and they had a revolting habit of fattening
their fish. Old Izaak would have abhorred the very thought of casting
a line for such prey: sickening thoughts of cannibalism would have
filled him with horror. But C.P.C. consented to hunt one day, so he
writes to Tacitus. Did he ride after the dogs, spear in hand, to kill
the fierce wild-boar? Not he. He; sat down by the nets with tablets
on his knee, under the quiet shade, and meditated and enjoyed the
solitude, and scribbled to his heart's content. Here a doubt arises.
Let us whisper it: Did he inherit the avuncular tendency to obesity?
We have seen no hint of this, and of course it would not enter into
his correspondence; but it is possible. At all events, our natural
conclusion is, that he was too literary to be merely a _bon vivant_.
No, he was a shrewd reader of human nature, a man of rare taste, of
strong sense, and fond of an equable life. He had means, and often,
if not always, the proper leisure to live well. And by living well we
mean, not that he indulged in a greedy enjoyment of the good things of
this life, nor yet in a profuse and gaudy display, but that, being a
heathen, he lived as an upright heathen lawyer, magistrate, statesman
and millionaire should live.

It was needful for him, then, having the wherewithal, and being a
refined and well-balanced man, to have the place where to live well.
Did he have this? Yes: he had two villas--one a summer residence
near the mountains, and a winter one sixteen miles from Rome, near
Laurentum. This was the villa of Laurentinum. It was fitted up with
every then known comfort and convenience which a man of wealth,
pleasure and taste could want and thoroughly enjoy. As he was fond of
showing his winter-house, we may go back just seventeen hundred and
eighty years and introduce you as his friend Gallus. It is so long
since that Pliny would not detect you, and we shall have the benefit
of his own guidance in the intricacies of his spacious villa. We will
take his advice, an