an Augur, at Rome, and was afterwards
appointed governor of Spain. In every public character, he acquitted
himself with great reputation, and enjoyed the esteem of the several
emperors under whom he lived. The assiduity with which he applied
himself to the collection of information, either curious or useful,
surpasses all example. From an early hour in the morning, until late at
night, he was almost constantly employed in discharging the duties of his
public station, in reading or hearing books read by his amanuensis, and
in extracting from them whatever seemed worthy of notice. Even during
his meals, and while travelling in his carriage upon business, he
prosecuted with unremitting zeal and diligence his taste for enquiry and
compilation. No man ever displayed so strong a persuasion of the value
of time, or availed himself so industriously of it. He considered every
moment as lost which was not employed in literary pursuits. The books
which he wrote, in consequence of this indefatigable exertion, were,
according to the account transmitted by his nephew, Pliny the younger,
numerous, and on various subjects. The catalogue of them is as follows:
a book on Equestrian Archery, which discovered much skill in the art; the
Life of Q. Pomponius Secundus; twenty books of the Wars of Germany; a
complete treatise on the Education of an Orator, in six volumes; eight
books of Doubtful Discourses, written in the latter part of the reign of
Nero, when every kind of moral discussion was attended with danger; with
a hundred and sixty volumes of remarks on the writings of the various
authors which he had perused. For the last-mentioned production only,
and before it was brought near to its accomplishment, we are told, that
he (476) was offered by Largius Licinius four hundred thousand sesterces,
amounting to upwards of three thousand two hundred pounds sterling; an
enormous sum for the copyright of a book before the invention of
printing! But the only surviving work of this voluminous author is his
Natural History, in thirty-seven books, compiled from the various writers
who had treated of that extensive and interesting subject.

If we estimate this great work either by the authenticity of the
information which it contains, or its utility in promoting the
advancement of arts and sciences, we should not consider it as an object
of any extraordinary encomiums; but when we view it as a literary
monument, which displays the whole k