for which, and all
the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare
me! S.P.

* * * * *

PLINY THE YOUNGER

Letters

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or Pliny the Younger, was
born in 62 A.D. at Novum Comum, in the neighbourhood of Lake
Como, in the north of Italy. His family was honourable,
wealthy, and able, and his uncle, Pliny the Elder, was the
encyclopaedic student and author of the famous "Natural
History." On his father's death, young Pliny, a boy of nine,
was adopted by the elder Pliny, educated in literary studies
and as an advocate, and was a notable pleader before his
twentieth year. Through a succession of offices he rose to the
consulship in the year 100, and afterwards continued to hold
important appointments. He was twice married, but left no
children. The date of his death is unknown. The "Letters of
Pliny the Younger" are valuable as throwing light upon the
life of the Roman people; but they are also models of Latin
style, and have all the charm of their author's upright,
urbane, and tolerant character. His epistle to the Emperor
Trajan with regard to the Christians is of peculiar interest.

_To Cornelius Tacitus_

You will certainly laugh, and well may you laugh, when I tell you that
your old friend has turned sportsman, and has captured three magnificent
boars. "What," you say, "Pliny?" Yes, I myself, though without giving up
my much loved inactivity. While I sat at the nets, you might have found
me holding, not a spear, but my pen. I was resolved, if I returned with
my hands empty, at least to bring home my tablets full. This open-air
way of studying is not at all to be despised. The activity and the scene
stimulate the imagination; and there is something in the solemnity and
solitude of the woods, and in the expectant silence of the chase, that
greatly promotes meditation. I advise you whenever you hunt in future to
take your tablets with you as well as your basket and flask. You will
find that Minerva, as well as Diana, haunts these hills.

_To Minucius Fundanus_

When I consider how the days pass with us at Rome, I am surprised to
find that any single day taken by itself is spent reasonably enough, or
at least seems to be so, and yet when I add up many days together the
impression is quite otherwise. If you ask anyone what he has be