or 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, f