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Boys' and Girls' Pliny Vol 1 - Pliny the Elder John S White · Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

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  Speaker 1: Section one of the Boys and Girls Pliny. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or the volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by phone The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny
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  Speaker 1: the Elder, introduction in the little village of Como, in
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  Speaker 1: that province of northern Italy called by the Romans Goal
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  Speaker 1: this side the Alps. Was born twenty three years after
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  Speaker 1: the coming of our Lord Caius Plinius Secundus, known to
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  Speaker 1: us by the shorter name of Pliny. His boyhood was
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  Speaker 1: spent in his native province, but we find him in
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  Speaker 1: Rome in his sixteenth year, attending the lectures of Apion
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  Speaker 1: the Grammarian. Like Herodotus, he became a great traveler for
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  Speaker 1: those days, visiting Africa, Egypt, and Greece, and in his
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  Speaker 1: twenty third year he served in Germany under Pomponius Secundus,
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  Speaker 1: by whom he was greatly beloved, and was soon promoted
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  Speaker 1: to the command of a troop of cavalry. He appears
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  Speaker 1: to have remained in the army, journeying about extensively in
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  Speaker 1: Germany and Gaul until he was twenty eight years old
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  Speaker 1: when he returned to Rome and devoted himself to the
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  Speaker 1: study of law, But his natural taste for literary work
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  Speaker 1: speedily developed itself, and abandoning his forensic pursuits, he set
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  Speaker 1: to work upon a life of his friend Pomponius, and
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  Speaker 1: an account of the wars in Germany, which filled twenty
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  Speaker 1: books when completed, no part of which is now excellent.
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  Speaker 1: In the reign of Nero, Pliny was appointed procurator or
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  Speaker 1: controller of the revenue in Nearer Spain. During his absence
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  Speaker 1: upon this mission, his brother in law Caius Kacilius died,
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  Speaker 1: leaving one son, a boy ten years of age, Caius
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  Speaker 1: Plinius Kekillius Secundas, afterwards a famous lawyer and the author
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  Speaker 1: of the Letters, whom he adopted immediately upon his return
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  Speaker 1: from Spain a d. Seventy. To this nephew, we are
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  Speaker 1: indebted for nearly all we know of Plines's personal character
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  Speaker 1: and mode of life, a very entertaining description of which
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  Speaker 1: he gives in a letter to his friend babyis Masser.
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  Speaker 1: It gives me great pleasure to find you such a
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  Speaker 1: reader of my uncle's works as to wish to have
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  Speaker 1: a complete collection of them. And to ask me for
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  Speaker 1: the names of them all. I will act as index then,
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  Speaker 1: and you shall know the very order in which they
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  Speaker 1: were written. For the studious reader likes to know this.
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  Speaker 1: The first work of his was a treatise in one
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  Speaker 1: volume on the use of the dart by cavalry. This
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  Speaker 1: he wrote when in command of one of the cavalry
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  Speaker 1: corps of our Allied troops. It is drawn up with
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  Speaker 1: great care and ingenuity. Next came the Life of Pomponius Secundas,
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  Speaker 1: in two volumes. Pomponius had a great affection for him,
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  Speaker 1: and my uncle thought he owed this tribute to his memory.
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  Speaker 1: The History of the Wars in Germany was in twenty books,
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  Speaker 1: in which he gave an account of all the battles
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  Speaker 1: we were engaged in against that nation. A dream he
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  Speaker 1: had while serving in the army in Germany first suggested
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  Speaker 1: the design of this work to him. He imagined that
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  Speaker 1: drusus Nero, who extended his conquests very far into that
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  Speaker 1: country and there lost his life, appeared to him in
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  Speaker 1: his sleep and entreated him to rescue his memory from oblivion.
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  Speaker 1: Next comes a work entitled The Student, in three parts,
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  Speaker 1: which from their length spread into the six volumes, a
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  Speaker 1: work in which is discussed the earliest training and subsequent
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  Speaker 1: education of the orator. His Questions of Latin Grammar and
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  Speaker 1: Style in eight books, was written in the latter part
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  Speaker 1: of Nero's reign, when the tyranny of the times made
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  Speaker 1: it dangerous to engage in literary pursuits requiring freedom and
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  Speaker 1: elevation of tone. He completed the history which Alphidious Busses
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  Speaker 1: left unfinished, and added to it thirty books. And lastly
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  Speaker 1: he has left thirty seven books on natural history, a
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  Speaker 1: work of great compass and learning, and as full of
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  Speaker 1: variety as nature herself. You will wonder how a man
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  Speaker 1: as busy as he was could find time to compose
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  Speaker 1: so many books, and some of them two, involving such
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  Speaker 1: care and labor. But you will be still more surprised
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  Speaker 1: when you hear that he pleaded at the bar for
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  Speaker 1: some time, that he died in his fifty sixth year,
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  Speaker 1: and that the intervening time was employed partly in the
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  Speaker 1: execution of the highest official duties, and partly in attendance
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  Speaker 1: upon those emperors who honored him with their friendship. But
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  Speaker 1: he had a quick apprehension, marvelous power of application, and
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  Speaker 1: was of an exceedingly wakeful temperament. He always began to
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  Speaker 1: study at midnight at the time of the feast of Vulcan,
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  Speaker 1: not for the sake of good luck, but for learning's sake.
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  Speaker 1: In winter, generally at one in the morning, but never
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  Speaker 1: later than two, and often at twelve. He was a
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  Speaker 1: most ready sleeper, insomuch that he would sometimes, whilst in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of his studies, fall off, and then wake
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  Speaker 1: up again before daybreak. He used to wait upon Vespasian,
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  Speaker 1: who also used his nights for transacting business in and
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  Speaker 1: then proceed to execute the orders he had received. As
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  Speaker 1: soon as he turned home.
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  Speaker 2: He gave what time was left to study.
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  Speaker 1: After a short and light refreshment at noon, agreeably to
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  Speaker 1: the good old custom of our ancestors, he would frequently
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  Speaker 1: in the summer, if he was disengaged from business, lie
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  Speaker 1: down and bask in the sun, during which time some
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  Speaker 1: author was read to him while he took notes and
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  Speaker 1: made extracts. For out of every book he read, he
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  Speaker 1: made extracts. Indeed, it was a maxim of his that
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  Speaker 1: no book was so bad, but some good might be
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  Speaker 1: got out of it. When this was over, he generally
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  Speaker 1: took a cold bath, then some slight refreshment, and a
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  Speaker 1: little nap. After this, as if it had been a
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  Speaker 1: new day. He studied till supper time, when a book
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  Speaker 1: was again read to him, from which he would take
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  Speaker 1: down running notes. I remember once, when his reader had
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  Speaker 1: mispronounced a word, one of my uncle's friends at the table.
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  Speaker 2: Made him go back to where the word.
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  Speaker 1: Was and repeated, upon which my uncle said to his friend,
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  Speaker 1: you understood it, didn't you, Yes, said the other, Why then,
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  Speaker 1: said he did you make him go over it again?
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  Speaker 1: We have lost more than ten lines by this interruption.
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  Speaker 1: Such an economist he was of time. In the summer
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  Speaker 1: he used to rise from supper by daylight, and in
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  Speaker 1: winter as soon as it was dark, a rule he
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  Speaker 1: observed as strictly as if it had been a law
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  Speaker 1: of the state. Such was his manner of life amid
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  Speaker 1: the bustle and turmoil of the town. But in the
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  Speaker 1: country his whole time was devoted to study, except only
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  Speaker 1: when in the bath. When I say in the bath,
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  Speaker 1: I mean while he was in the water. For all
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  Speaker 1: the while he was being rubbed and wiped, he was
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  Speaker 1: employed either in hearing some book read to him, or
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  Speaker 1: in dictating himself in going about anywhere, as though he
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  Speaker 1: were disengaged from all other business, he applied his mind
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  Speaker 1: wholly to that single pursuit.
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  Speaker 2: Always by his side was.
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  Speaker 1: A shorthand writer with book and tablets, who in the
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  Speaker 1: winter wore a particular sort of warm gloves, that the
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  Speaker 1: sharpness of the weather might not occasion any interruption to
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  Speaker 1: my uncle's studies. And for the same reason when in
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  Speaker 1: Rome he was always carried in a chair. Footnote. The
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  Speaker 1: Romans carried the art of shorthand to its highest perfection,
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  Speaker 1: as appears from the following epigram of Marshal Cournde verbal
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  Speaker 1: licat manustesphelocius ilius non dom lingu assume dextra perrigid opus
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  Speaker 1: swift though the words the pen still swifter sped, the
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  Speaker 1: hand has finished ere the tongue has said, and a
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  Speaker 1: footnote I recollect his once taking me to task for walking.
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  Speaker 1: You need not, he said, lose these hours, for he
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  Speaker 1: looked upon every hour as lost that was not given
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  Speaker 1: to study. Through this extraordinary application he found time to
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  Speaker 1: compose the several treatises I have mentioned, beside one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and sixty volumes of extracts which he left me in
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  Speaker 1: his will, consisting of a kind of commonplace written on
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  Speaker 1: both sides in a very small hand, which renders the
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  Speaker 1: collection doubly a voluminous He used himself to tell us
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  Speaker 1: that when he was a controller of the revenue in Spain,
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  Speaker 1: he could have sold these manuscripts to largest Licanus for
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  Speaker 1: four hundred thousands esterses sixteen thousand dollars, and then the
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  Speaker 1: collection was not so extensive as now. When you consider
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  Speaker 1: the books he has read and the volumes he has written,
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  Speaker 1: are you not inclined to suspect that he never was
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  Speaker 1: engaged in public duties, or was ever in the concent
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  Speaker 1: evidence of his prince. On the other hand, when you
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  Speaker 1: are told how indefatigable he was in his studies, are
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  Speaker 1: you not inclined to wonder that he read and wrote
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  Speaker 1: no more than he did? For on one side, what
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  Speaker 1: obstacles would not the business of a court throw in
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  Speaker 1: his way? And on the other what might not such
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  Speaker 1: intense application effect. It amuses me when I hear myself
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  Speaker 1: called a studious man who in comparison with him and
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  Speaker 1: the merest idler, But why do I mention myself, who
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  Speaker 1: am diverted from these pursuits by numberless affairs, both public
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  Speaker 1: and private, who among those whose whole lives are devoted
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  Speaker 1: to literary pursuits, would not blush and feel himself the
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  Speaker 1: most confirmed of sluggards. By the side of him, I see,
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  Speaker 1: I have run out my letter farther than I had
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  Speaker 1: originally intended, which was only to let you know, as
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  Speaker 1: you asked me, what works he had left behind. But
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  Speaker 1: I trust this will be no less acceptable to you
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  Speaker 1: than the books themselves, as it may possibly not only
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  Speaker 1: excite your curiosity to read his works, but also your
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  Speaker 1: emulation to copy his example by some attempts of a
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  Speaker 1: similar nature. Farewell. In his great work of thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: books upon natural History, the only one which has come
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  Speaker 1: down to us, Pliny has compiled a vast encyclopedia of
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  Speaker 1: all human knowledge of his time, comprising more than twenty
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  Speaker 1: thousand subjects, and necessitating, as he himself states, the perusal
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  Speaker 1: of two thousand volumes, almost all of which have perished,
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  Speaker 1: the works of five hundred authors, to which he has
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  Speaker 1: added countless matters derived from his personal inquiry, experience, and observation.
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  Speaker 1: Among his enthusiastic admirers in modern times are the eminent
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  Speaker 1: naturalists and buffon. The former in less extravagant but equally
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  Speaker 1: appreciative terms, accords to Pliny a high place among the
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  Speaker 1: writers of classical antiquity. The work of Pliny, he says,
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most precious monuments that have come
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  Speaker 1: down to us from ancient times, and the force proof
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  Speaker 1: of an astonishing amount of erudition in one who was
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  Speaker 1: a warrior and a statesman. To appreciate with justice this
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  Speaker 1: vast and celebrated composition, it is necessary to regard it
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  Speaker 1: in several points of view, with reference to the plan proposed,
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  Speaker 1: the facts stated, and the style employed. The plan proposed
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  Speaker 1: by the writer is of immense extent. It is his
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  Speaker 1: object to write not simply a natural history in our
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  Speaker 1: restricted sense of the term, not an account merely more
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  Speaker 1: or less detailed of animals, plants and minerals, but a
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  Speaker 1: work which embraces astronomy, physics, geography, agriculture, commerce, medicine, and
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  Speaker 1: define arts and all these in addition to natural history
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  Speaker 1: properly so called, while at the same time he continually
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  Speaker 1: interweaves with his narrative information upon the arts which bear
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  Speaker 1: relation to man considered metaphysically, and the history of nations.
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  Speaker 1: So much so, indeed, that in many respects this work
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  Speaker 1: was the encyclopedia of its age. It was impossible, in
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  Speaker 1: running over, however, cursorily, such a prodigious number of subjects,
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  Speaker 1: that the writer should not have made us acquainted with
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  Speaker 1: a multitude of facts, which, while remarkable in themselves, are
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  Speaker 1: the more precious from the circumstance that, at the present
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  Speaker 1: day he is the only author extant who relates them.
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  Speaker 1: It is to be regretted, however, that the manner in
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  Speaker 1: which he has collected and grouped this mass of matter
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  Speaker 1: has caused to lose some portion of its value from
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  Speaker 1: his mixture of fable with truth. But if Pliny possesses
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  Speaker 1: little merit as a critic, it is far otherwise with
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  Speaker 1: his talents as a writer and the immense treasury which
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  Speaker 1: he opens to us of Latin terms and forms of expression. These,
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  Speaker 1: from the very abundance of the subjects upon which he treats,
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  Speaker 1: render his work one of the richest repositories of the
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  Speaker 1: Roman language. Wherever he finds it possible to give expression
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  Speaker 1: to general ideas or to philosophical views, his language assumes
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  Speaker 1: considerable energy and vivacity, and his thoughts present to us
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  Speaker 1: a certain novelty and boldness which tend in a very
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  Speaker 1: great degree to relieve the dryness of his enumerations, and
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  Speaker 1: with the majority of his readers excuse the insufficiency of
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  Speaker 1: his scientific indications. He is always noble and serious, full
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  Speaker 1: of of the love of justice and virtue, detestation of
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  Speaker 1: cruelty and baseness of which he had such frightful instances
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  Speaker 1: before his eyes, and contempt for that unbridled luxury which
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  Speaker 1: in his time had so deeply corrupted the Roman people.
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  Speaker 1: For these great merits, Pliny cannot be too highly praised,
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  Speaker 1: And despite the faults which we are obliged to admit
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  Speaker 1: in him, when viewed as a naturalist, we are bound
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  Speaker 1: to regard him as one of the most meritorious of
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  Speaker 1: the Roman writers, and among those most worthy to be
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  Speaker 1: reckoned in a number of the Classics who wrote after
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  Speaker 1: the reign of Augustus. Among the later honours conferred upon
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Pliny was one which indirectly cost him his life, his
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: appointment by Vespasian eighty seventy four as prefect of the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Roman fleet on the west coast of Italy. Three years later,
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  Speaker 1: in the great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction
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  Speaker 1: of her Gallanium and Pompeii. He met his romantic end
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  Speaker 1: in the execution of his duty, the story of which
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  Speaker 1: is again graphically told by the younger Pliny in two
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: letters to his friend Tacitus the historian. Your request that
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  Speaker 1: I would send you an account of my uncle's death
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  Speaker 1: in order to transmit a more exact relation of it
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  Speaker 1: to posterity, deserves my acknowledgments. For if this accident shall
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  Speaker 1: be celebrated by your pen, the glory of it, I
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  Speaker 1: am well assured, will be rendered forever illustrious. And notwithstanding
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: he perished by a misfortune, which, as it involved at
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  Speaker 1: the same time a most beautiful country in ruins and
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  Speaker 1: destroyed so many populous cities, seems to promise him an
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  Speaker 1: everlasting remembrance. Notwithstanding he has himself composed many and lasting works.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I am persuaded the mentioning of him in your
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  Speaker 1: mortal writings will greatly contribute to render his name immortal happy.
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  Speaker 1: I esteem those to be to whom, by provision of
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  Speaker 1: the Gods has been granted the ability either to do
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  Speaker 1: such actions as are worthy of being related, or to
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  Speaker 1: relate him in a manner worthy of being read. My
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  Speaker 1: uncle was at that time with the fleet under his
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  Speaker 1: command at Meisinhum in the Bay of Naples. On the
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourth of August, about one in the afternoon, my
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  Speaker 1: mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of
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  Speaker 1: very unusual size and shape. He had just taken a
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  Speaker 1: turn in the sun, and, after bathing himself in cold
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: water and making a light luncheon, had gone back to
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  Speaker 1: his books. He immediately arose and went out upon a
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  Speaker 1: piece of rising ground where he could get a better
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  Speaker 1: sight of this very uncommon appearance. A cloud was ascending
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  Speaker 1: from a mountain, afterwards found to be Vesuvius, the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of which I cannot more accurately describe than by likening
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  Speaker 1: it to that of a pine tree, For it shot
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  Speaker 1: up to a great height in the form of a
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  Speaker 1: very tall trunk, spreading itself out at the top into
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  Speaker 1: a sort of brunch. It appeared sometimes bright and sometimes
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  Speaker 1: dark and spotted, according as it was either more or
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  Speaker 1: less impregnated with earth and cinders.
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  Speaker 2: Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: It seems probable that this was the first eruption of
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  Speaker 1: Mount Vesuvius, at least of any consequence. Dio, indeed and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: other ancient authors speak of it as burning before, but
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: they still describe it as covered with trees and vines,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: so that the eruptions must have been inconsiderable, and a footnote.
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  Speaker 1: This phenomenon seemed to a man of such learning and
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: research as my uncle, extraordinary and worth further looking into.
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  Speaker 1: He accordingly or ordered a light vessel to be got ready,
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  Speaker 1: and gave me leave if I liked to accompany him.
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  Speaker 1: I preferred to go on with my work, And it
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: so happened that he had himself given me something to
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  Speaker 1: write out. Just as he was coming out of the house,
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  Speaker 1: tablets in hand, he received a note from Rectina, the
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  Speaker 1: wife of Bassis, who was in the utmost alarm at
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the imminent danger which threatened her. As her villa lay
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. There was no way
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: of escape but by sea. She earnestly entreated him therefore
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  Speaker 1: to come to her assistance. So he changed his first intention,
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  Speaker 1: and what he had begun from a philosophical he now
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  Speaker 1: carried out in a noble and generous spirit. He ordered
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the galles to put to sea, and went himself on board,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but the
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  Speaker 1: several other towns which lay thickly strewn along that beautiful coast.
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  Speaker 1: Hastening then to the place from which others were fleeing
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  Speaker 1: in the utmost terror, he steered his course direct to
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  Speaker 1: the point of danger, and with so much calmness and
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  Speaker 1: presence of mind as to be able to make and
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  Speaker 1: dictate his observations upon all the phenomena of the dreadful scene.
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  Speaker 1: He was now so close to the mountain that the cinders,
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  Speaker 1: which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell
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  Speaker 1: into the ships, together with pumice stones and great black
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: pieces of burning rock. They were in danger of getting
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, as well
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  Speaker 1: as from the vast fragments which rolled down from the
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  Speaker 1: mountain and obstructed all the shore.
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  Speaker 2: Here. For a moment he.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Stopped to consider whether or not he should turn back.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: But when the pilot advised him to do.
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  Speaker 1: So, he exclaimed fortune favors the brave steer to Pomponianus.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Pomponianus was at Stebbier, now called Castellamara, separated by a
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  Speaker 1: bay which the sea, after several insensible windings, forms with
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  Speaker 1: the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board
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  Speaker 1: the ships, For though he was not at that time
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  Speaker 1: in actual danger, yet being within sight of it and
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  Speaker 1: extremely near, he determined if it should in the least
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  Speaker 1: increase to put to sea as soon as the wind,
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  Speaker 1: which was blowing dead inshore, should go down. It was favorable, however,
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  Speaker 1: for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus. It was favorable, however,
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  Speaker 1: for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in
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  Speaker 1: the greatest consternation. He embraced him tenderly, encouraging and urging
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  Speaker 1: him to keep his spirits, and the more effectually to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: soothe his fears. By seeming unconcerned himself, ordered a bath
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to be got ready bathed, and sat down to supper
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: with great cheerfulness, or at least what is just as
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: heroic with every appearance of it. Meanwhile, broad flames shone
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: out in several places from Mount Vesuvius, which the darkness
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: of the night contributed to render still brighter and clearer.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: My uncle, to soothe the apprehensions of his friend, assured
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: him that it was only the burning of the villages
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: which the country people had abandoned to the flames. After
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: this he retired to rest, and was so little disquieted
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: as to fall into a sound sleep, for his breathing,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: which on account of his corpulence, was rather heavy and sonorous,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: was heard by attendants outside. The court, which led to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: his apartment, was now almost filled with stones and ushes,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and if he had continued there any longer, it would
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: have been impossible for him to have made his way out.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: So he was awakened and getting up, when to Pomponianus
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and the rest of his company, who were feeling too
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: anxious to think of sleep, they consulted together whether it
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: now rocked from side to side with frequent and violent concussions,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: as though shaken from their very foundations, or fly to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the open fields, where the calcine stones and cinders, though
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: light fell in such large showers as to threaten destruction.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: In this choice of dangers, they resolved for the fields.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: But I must say that.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: While the rest of the company were hurried into this
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: resolution by their fears, my uncle embraced it upon cool
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: and deliberate consideration. They tied pillows upon their heads with napkins,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and went out, And this was their whole defense against
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the storm of stones. That fell round them. It was
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness prevailed
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: than in the thickest night, alleviated, however, in some degree
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: by torches and other lights of various kind. They thought
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: proper to go farther down upon the shore to see
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: if they might safely put out to sea, but found
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the waves still running extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: laying himself down upon a sailcloth which was spread for him,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: called twice for some cold water, which he drank. When
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: immediately the flames, preceded by a strong whiff of sulfur,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: dispersed the rest of the party and obliged him to rise.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: He raised himself up with the assistance of two of
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: his servants, and instantly fell down dead, suffocated as a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: conjecture by a de nooxious vapor, having always had a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: weak throat which was often inflamed. As soon as it
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: was light again, which was not till the third day.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: After this melancholy accident, his body was found untouched and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: without any marks of violence upon it, in the dress
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: in which he fell, and looking more like a man
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: asleep than dead. During all this time, my mother and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I were at Meisinum. After my uncle had left us,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I spent time in my studies until it was the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: hour for my bath, after which I went to supper,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and then fell into a short and uneasy sleep. A
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: trembling of the earth had been noticed for many days before,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: which did not alarm us much, as this is quite
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: an ordinary occurrence in Campania. But it was so particularly
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: violent that night that it not only shook, but actually overturned,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: as it would seem, everything about us. My mother rushed
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: into my chamber, where she found me rising. In order
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: to awaken her. We sat down in the open court
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of the house, which occupied a small space between the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: buildings and the sea. As I was at that time
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: but eighteen years of age, I know not whether I
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: should call my behavior in this dangerous juncture courage or folly.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: But I took up Levy and amused myself, turning over
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: that author and even making extracts from him, as if
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I had been perfectly at my leisure. Just then, a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: friend of my uncle's, who had lately come to him
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: from Spain, joined us, and observing me sitting by my
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: mother with a book in my hand, reproved her for
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: her calmness and me at the same time for my
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: careless security. Nevertheless, I went on with my author. Though
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: it was now mourning, the light was still exceedingly faint
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and doubtful, the buildings all around us tottered, and though
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: we stood upon open ground, yet as the place was
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: narrow and confined, it was not possible to remain without
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: imminent danger. We therefore resolved to the town. A panic
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: stricken crowd followed us, and, as to a mind distracted
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: with terror, every suggestion seems more prudent than its own,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: pressed on us in dense array, to drive us forward
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: as it came out. When at a convenient distance from
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the house, we stopped in the midst of a most
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots, which we had ordered
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and forwards,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: though upon the most level ground, that we could not
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: keep them steady, even by supporting them with large stones.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: be driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the earth. It is certain at least that the shore
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was considerably enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon it.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: On the other side, a dreadful black cloud, broken with
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: rapid zigzag flashes, revealed behind it variously shaped masses of flame.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: These lasts were like sheet lightning, but much larger. Upon this,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: our Spanish friend, whom I mentioned above, addressing himself to
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: my mother, with great energy and urgency, said, if your
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: brother be safe, he certainly wishes you may be so too,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: And if he has perished, it was his desire no
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: doubt that you might both survive him. So why do
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you delay your escape a moment we could never think
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of our own safety, said she, while we are uncertain
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of his. Upon this, our friend left us and withdrew
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: from the danger with the utmost precipitation. Soon afterwards, the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: cloud began to descend and cover the sea. It had
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: already surrounded and concealed the island of Capri and the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: promontory of Maisenham. My mother now besought, urged, even commanded
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: me to make my escape at any rate, which, as
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I was young, I might easily do. As for herself,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: she said, her age and corpulency rendered all attempts of
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: that sort impossible. As for herself, she said, her age
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: and corpulency rendered all attempts of that sort impossible. However,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: she would willingly meet death if she could have the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: satisfaction of seeing that she was not the occasion of mine.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: But I absolutely refused to leave her, and taking her
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: by the hand, compelled her to go with me. She
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: complied with great reluctance, and not without many reproaches to
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: herself for retarding my flight. The ashes now began to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: fall upon us, though in no great quantity.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I looked back.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: A dense, dark mist seemed to be following us, spreading
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: itself over the country like a cloud. Let us turn
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: out of the high road, I said, while we can
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: still see, for fear that should we fall in the road,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: we should be pressed to death in the dark by
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the crowds that are following us. We had scarcely set
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: down when night came upon us. Not such as we
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: have when the sky is cloudy or when there is
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: no moon, but that of a room, when it is
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: shut up and all the lights put out. You might
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the shouts of men, some calling for their children, others
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: for their parents, others for their husbands, and seeking to
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: recognize each other by the voices that replied, one lamenting
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: his own fate, another that of his family, some wishing
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to die from the very fear of dying, some lifting
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: their hands to the gauds. But the greater part convinced
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: that their were now no gods at all, and that
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the final, endless night of which we have heard had
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: come upon the world.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world would
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: eventually be destroyed by fire, and all things would fall
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: into original chaos, not excepting even the national gods themselves,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: from the destruction of this general conflagration and the footnote.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Some augmented the real terrors by others imaginary or wilfully invented.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I remember some who declared that one part of Meisinum
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: had fallen, and that another was on fire. It was false,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: but they found people to believe them. It now grew
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: rather lighter, which we imagined to be not the forerunner
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of an approaching burst of flames, as in truth it was,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: but the return of day. However, the fire fell at
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: a distance from us. We were immersed again in thick darkness,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and a heavy shower of ashes.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Rained upon us.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Which we were obliged every now and then to stand
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: up to shake off, otherwise we should have been crushed
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and buried in the heap. I might boast that during
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expression
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: of fear escaped me, for my support was grounded in
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: that miserable though mighty consolation that all mankind were involved
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: in the same calamity, and that I was perishing with
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the world itself. At last, this dreadful darkness was dissipated
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: by degrees, like a cloud or smoke. The real day returned,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and even the sun shone out, though with alurid light,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: presented itself to our eyes, now extremely weakened, seemed changed,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: being covered deep with ashes as with snow. We returned
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: to meisoneum, where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and passed an anxious night between hope and fear, though
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: with a much larger share of the latter, for the
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: earthquake still continued, and many frenzied persons ran up and down,
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: heightening their own and their friend's calamities by terrible predictions. However,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts of
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: leaving the place till we could receive some news.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Of my uncle.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: And now please read this narrative without any view of
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: inserting it in your history, of which it is not
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: in the least worthy. Indeed, you must lay it to
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: your own request. If my account does not appear worth
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: even the trouble of a letter, farewell. In the preparation
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: of the most interesting parts of Pliny's Natural History for
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: younger reader, I have had constant recourse for footnotes to
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the annotations of those devoted students of Pliny, Cauvier, Bostoc,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and Adjesscon, whose work can rarely be improved upon the
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: literal rendering of the original Latin text has been closely followed,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: and in all instances where the author's statements have proved
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: in the light of modern science to be erroneous, unless
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: evidently preposterous, attention has been.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Called to the fact.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: With this volume, I reluctantly bring to completion the brief
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: series of classical authors best adapted for the reading of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Boys and Girls, in the preparation of which the greater
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: part of my leisure hours during the past three years
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: has been occupied. Plutarch Herodotus Pliny A trio of illustrious names,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: of how many can it be truly said, as of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: them the world is wiser and better for their living.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: New York City, July first, eighteen eighty five. End of
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: section one, recording by phone Section two of The Boys
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This Liberpook's recording
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Recording by phone book one
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: dedication Caius Plinius Secundus to his friend Titus Vespasian. This
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: treat is on natural history, a novel work in Roman literature,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: which I have just completed. I have taken the liberty
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: to dedicate to you, most gracious Emperor, an appellation peculiarly
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: suitable to you, while on account of his age, that
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: of great is more appropriate to your father. For thou
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: still ne'er was quite to despise the trifles that I write.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: If I may be allowed to shelter myself under the
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: example of Cotullus, my fellow countryman, for he, as you know,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: when his napkins had been changed footnote. The illusion otherwise
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: obscure is to the fact that some friends of Catullus
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: had filched a set of table napkins which had been
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: given to him by Varenius and Fabius, and substituted others
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: in their place, And the footnote expressed himself a little
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: harshly from his anxiety to show his friendship for his
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: dear little Vanius and Fabius. At the same time, this
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: importunity of mine may effect what you complained of my
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: not having done in another two forward epistle of mine.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: It will put upon record, and let all the world
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: know with what kindness you exercise the imperial dignity. You
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: have had the honor of a triumph and of the censorship,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: have been six times console, and have shared in the tribune.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: And what is still more honorable, whilst you have held
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: them in conjunction with your father. You have presided over
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the equestrian order and been the prefect of the Praetorians.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: All this you have done for the service of the Republic,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and at the same time have regarded me as a
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: fellow soldier and a messmate. Nor has the extent of
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: your prosperity produced any change in you, except that it
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: has given you the power of doing good to the.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Utmost of your wishes.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: And whilst all these circumstances increase the veneration which other
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: persons feel for you, with respect to myself, they have
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: made me so bold as to wish to become more familiar.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: You must therefore blame yourself for any fault of this
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: kind that I may commit. But although I have laid
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: aside my blushes, I have not gained my object. For
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: you still awe me and keep me at a distance.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: By the majesty of your understanding in no one. Just
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the force of eloquence and of tribunition oratory blaze out
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: more powerfully with that glowing language you thunder forth the
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: praises of your father, How dearly you love your brother,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: How admirable is your talent for poetry, What a fertility
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: of genius you possess, so as to enable you to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: imitate your brother. But who is there that is bold
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: enough to form an estimate on these points if he
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: is to be judged by you, and more especially if
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: you are challenged to do so. For the case of
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: those who merely publish their works is very different from
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: that of those who expressly dedicate them to you. In
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: the former case, I might say Emperor, Why do you
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: read these things? They are written only for the common people,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: for farmers or mechanics, or for those who have nothing
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: else to do? Why do you trouble yourself with them? Indeed,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: when I undertook this work, I did not expect that
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: you would sit in judgment upon me. I considered your
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: situation much too elevated for you to descend to such
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: an office. Besides, we possess the right of openly rejecting
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the opinion of men of learning. Marcus Tullius Cicero, himself,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: whose genius is beyond all competition, uses this privilege, and,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: remarkable as it may appear, employs an advocate in his
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: own defense. I do not write for very learned people.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: I do not wish my works to be read by
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Manius Persius, but by Junius Congus. And if Lucilius, who
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: first introduced the satirical style, applied such a remark to himself,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and if Cicero thought proper to borrow it, and that
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: more especially in a stratis the republica, how much reason
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: have I to do so? Who have such a judge
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: to defend myself against? And by this dedication I have
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: deprived myself of the benefit of challenge, For it is
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: a very different thing whether a person has a judge
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: given him by lot, or whether he voluntarily selects one.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: And we always make more preparation for an invited guest
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: than for one that comes in unexpectedly. I am well
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: aware that, placed as you are in the highest station,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: and gifted with the most splendid eloquence and the most
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: accomplished mind, even those who come to pay their respects
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to you do it with the kind of veneration. On
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: this account, I ought to be careful that what is
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: dedicated to you should be worthy of you. But the
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: country people, and indeed some whole nations, offer milk to
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the gods, and those who cannot procure Frankinson's substitute in
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: its place salted cakes. For the gods are not dissatisfied
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: when they are worshiped by everyone to the best of
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: his ability. But my temerity will appear the greater by
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the consideration that these volumes which I dedicate to you
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: are of such inferior importance, For they do not admit
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: of the display of genius, nor indeed is mine one
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: of the highest order. They admit of no excursions nor orations,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: nor discussions, nor of any wonderful adventures to tackle the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: fancy of the reader. The nature of things and life
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: as it actually exists are described in them, and often
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the lowest department of it, so that in very many
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: cases I am obliged to use rude and foreign or
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: even barbarous terms, and these often require to be introduced
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: by kind of preface. And besides this, my road is
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: not a beaten track, nor one which the mind is
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: much disposed to travel over. There is no one among
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: us who has ever attempted it, nor is there any
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: one individual among.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: The Greeks who has treated of all the topics.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Most of us seek for nothing but amusement in our studies,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: while others are fond of subjects that are of excessive
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: subtlety and completely involved in obscurity. My object is the
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: treat of all those things which the Greeks include in
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the encyclopedia, which, however, are either not generally known or
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: are rendered dubious from our ingenious conceits. And there are
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: other matters which many writers have given so much in
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: detail that we quite loathe them. It is indeed no
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: easy task to give novelty to what is old, and
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: authority to what is new, brightness to what has become tarnished,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: and light to what is obscure, To render what is
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: slightly acceptable, and what is doubtful worthy of her confidence,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: to give to all a natural manner.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: And to each its peculiar nature.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: It is sufficiently honorable and glorious to have been willing
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: even to make the attempt, although it should prove unsuccessful.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: I have included in thirty six books twenty thousand topics
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: all worthy of attention, gained by the careful perusal of
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: one hundred select authors, and of about two thousand volumes,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: of which a few only are in the hands of
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the studios. On account of the obscurity of the subjects
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: to these, I have made considerable additions of things which
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: were either not known to my predecessors, or which have
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: been lately discovered. Nor can I doubt but that there
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: still remain many things which I have omitted, For I
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: am a mere mortal and one that has many occupations.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I have therefore been obliged to compose this work at
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: interrupted intervals, by night as well as by day, so
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: that you will find that I have not been idle
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: even during this period the day I devote to you
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: exactly portioning out my sleep to the necessity of my health,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: and contenting myself with this reward, that while we are
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: a musing on these subjects, as Pharaoh says, we are
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: adding to the lengths of our lives. For life properly
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: consists in being awake. I consider it to be courteous
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and to indicate an ingenious modesty to acknowledge the sources
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: whence we have derived assistance, and not to act as
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: most of those have done whom I have examined. For
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: I must inform you that in comparing various o with
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: each other, I have discovered that some of the latest
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: and most dignified writers have transcribed word for word from
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: former works without making any acknowledgment, not avowedly rivaling them
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: in a manner of Virgil, or with the candor of Cicero, who,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: in his treatise de Republica professes to coincide in opinion
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: with Plato, and in his essay on Consolation for his Daughter,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: says that he follows Granter and in his offices penatious volumes, which,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: as you well know, ought not merely to be always
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: in our hands but to be learned by heart, for
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: it is surely the mark of a perverted mind and
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: a bad disposition to prefer being caught in a theft
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to returning what we have borrowed, especially when we have
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: acquired capital by Usuria's interest. The Greeks were wonderfully happy
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: in their titles. One work they called Kyrion, which means
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: that it was as sweet as a honeycomb. Another kira amaltea,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: or cornucopia, so that you might expect to get even
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: a draft of pigeons milk from it.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Then they have their.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Flowers, their muses, magazines, manuals, gardens, pictures, and sketches, all
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: of them titles for which a man might be tempted
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: even to forfeit his bill. But when you enter upon
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the works, oh, ye, gods and goddesses, how full of
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: emptiness our dull countrymen have merely their antiquities, or their examples,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: or their arts. I think one of the most humorous
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: of them has his nocturnal studies. Varro indeed, is not
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: much behind him when he calls one of his satires
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: a trick and a hof, and another turning the tables.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Footnote Cesculysses and flex tabula literally Ulysses and the half
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: and bent table and the footnote. Diodorus was the first
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: among the Greeks who laid aside this trifling manner, and
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: named his history the Library Apion. The Grammarian, he whom
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Tiberius Caesar called the trumpeter of the world, but would
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: rather seem to be the bell of the town crier,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: supposed that everyone to whom he inscribed any work with
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: dense acquire immortality. I do not regret not having given
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: my work a more fanciful title. That I may not, however,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: appear to inveigh so completely against the Greeks. I should
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: wish to be considered under the same point of view
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: with those inventors of the arts of painting and sculpture,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: of whom you will find an account in these volumes,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: whose works, although they are so perfect that we are
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: never satisfied with admiring them, are inscribed with a temporary title,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: such as a pelice or Polycletus was doing this implying
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: that the work was only commenced and still imperfect, and
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: that the artist might benefit by the criticisms that were
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: made on it and alter any part that required it,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: if he had not been prevented by death. It is
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: also a great mark of their modesty that they inscribed
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: their works as if they were the last which they
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: had executed, and as still in hand at the time
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: of their death. I think there are but three works
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: of art which are inscribed positively with the words such
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: a one executed. This. Of these I shall give an
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: account in their proper place. In these cases, it appears
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: that the artist felt the most perfect satisfaction with his work,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: and certainly these pieces have excited the envy of everyone.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I freely admit that much may be added to my works,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: not only to this, but to all which I have published.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: By this admission, I hope to escape from the carping critics.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: And I have the more reason to say this, because
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: I hear that there are certain stoics and logicians, and
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: also epicureans from the Grammarians I expected as much, who
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: are virulent against the little work I published on Grammar footnote.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: Pliny the Younger, in one of.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: His letters three point five, where he enumerates all his
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: uncle's publications, informs us that he wrote a piece of
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: criticism in eight books concerning ambiguity of expression Melmoth's Pliny
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: one one hundred thirty six and a footnote. But I
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: well know that even a woman once wrote against theophre Justus,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: a man so eminent for his eloquence that he obtained
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: from it his name, which signifies the divine speaker.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: His real name was Turtmus, but in consequence of the
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: beauty of his style, he acquired the appellation by which
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: he is generally known from the words teo frazi. Cicero
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: refers to him in Brutus one twenty one or Tour seventeen,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: and on other various occasions.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: End a footnote.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Because the public good requires that you should be spared
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: as much as possible from all trouble, I have subjoined
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: to this epistle the contents of each of the following books,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: and have used my best endeavors to prevent your being
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: obliged to read.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: Them all through.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: And this which was done for your benefit, will also
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: serve the same purpose for others, so that anyone may
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: search for what he wishes, and may know where to
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: find it. This has been already done among us by
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Valerius serranas in his work which he entitled on Mysteries.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: The first book is the preface of the work dedicated
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: to Titus Vespasian Caesar. The second is on the World,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: the Elements, and the Heavenly Bodies. The third, fourth, fifth,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: and sixth books are on geography, in which is contained
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: an account of the situation of the different countries, the inhabitants,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: the seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers and dimensions, and the
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: various tribes, some of which still exist while others have disappeared.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: The seventh is on Man and the Inventions of Man,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: the eighth on the various kinds of land animals, the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: ninth on aquatic animals, the tenth on the various kinds
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: of birds, the eleventh on insects, the twelfth on odoriferous plants,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth on exotic trees, the fourteenth on vines, the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: fifteenth on fruit trees, the sixteenth on forest trees, the
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: seventeenth on plants raised in nurseries or gardens, the eighteenth
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: on the nature of fruits and the cerebia and the
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: pursuits of the husbandmen. The nineteenth on flax broom footnote spartan.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: This plant was.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Used to make bands for the vines and cables for ships,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and the footnote and gardening. The twentieth on the cultivated
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: plants that are proper for food and for medicine. The
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: twenty first on flowers and plants that are used for
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: making garlands. The twenty second on garlands and medicines made
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: from plants, the twenty third on medicines made from wine
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: and from cultivated trees, the twenty fourth on medicines made
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: from forest trees, the twenty fifth on medicines made from
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: wild plants, the twenty sixth on new diseases and medicines
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: made for certain diseases from plants, the twenty seven on
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: some other plants and medicines, the twenty eighth on medicines
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: procured from man and from large animals. The twenty ninth
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: on medical authors and on medicines from other animals. The
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: thirtieth on magic and medicines were certain parts of the body.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: The thirty first on medicines from aquatic animals, the thirty
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: second on the other properties of aquatic animals, the thirty
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: third on gold and silver, the thirty fourth on copper
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: and lead and to workers of copper. The thirty fifth
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: on painting, Colors and Painters, the thirty sixth on marbles
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and Stones, the thirty seventh on gems, end of section two.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Recording by phone.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: Section three of.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Liberhooks recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Book two, An Account of the World and the Elements,
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, The character and Form of the World. The
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: world and whatever that be, which we otherwise call the heavens,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: must conceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: neither created nor subject at any time to destruction.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: The term mundus is used by Pliny, sometimes to mean
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: the Earth and its immediate appendages, the visible solar system,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: and at other times the universe, while in some instances
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: it is used in a rather vague manner, without any
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: distinct reference to either one or other of the above designations.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: I have usually translated it by the term world as
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: approaching nearest to the sense of the original, and a
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: footnote to inquire what is beyond? It is no concern
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: of man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: respecting it. It is sacred, eternal, and without bounds, all
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: in all, indeed, including everything in itself, finite, yet like
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: what is infinite, the most certain of all things, yet
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: like what is uncertain, externally and internally, embracing all things
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: in itself. It is the work of nature, and itself
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: constitutes nature. To go out of this world and to
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: search for what is beyond it would be madness, perfect madness,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: as if one who is ignorant of his own dimensions
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: could ascertain the measure of anything else, or as if
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the human mind could see what the world itself cannot contain.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: That the universe has the form of a perfect globe,
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: we learned from the name which has been uniformly given
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: to it, as well as from numerous natural arguments. For
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: not only does a figure of this kind return everywhere
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: into itself and sustain its lils, also including itself, requiring
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: no adjustments not sensible of either end or beginning, in
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: any of its parts, and is best fitted for that
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: motion with which, as will appear hereafter, it is continually
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: turning round. But still more, because we perceive it, by
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: the evidence of the sight, to be in every part
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: convex and central, which could not be the case word
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: of any other figure.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: The astronomy of our author is derived mainly from Aristotle
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: and a footnote. The rising and the setting of the
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: sun clearly prove that this globe is carried round in
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: the space of twenty four hours in an eternal and
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: never ceasing circuit, and with incredible swiftness. I am not
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: able to say whether the sound caused by the whirling
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: about of so great a mass be excessive and therefore
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: far beyond what our ears can perceive, nor indeed whether
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: the resounding of so many stars, all carried along at
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: the same time and revolving in their orbits, may not
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: produce a kind of delightful harmony of incredible sweetness.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: This theory of the music of the spheres was maintained
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: by Pythagoras, but was derided by Aristotle and a footnote.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: To us who are in the interior, the world appears
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: to glide silently along, both by day and by night.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Various circumstances in nature prove to us that there are
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: impressed on the heavens innumerable figures of animals and of
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: all kinds of objects, and that its surface is not
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: perfectly polished like the eggs of birds. As some celebrated
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: authors assert, this is evident to the eye. In one
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: part we have the figure of a wain, in others
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: of a bear, of a bull, and of a letter
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: footnote the letter delta in the constellation of the triangle.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: But except in this one case, the constellations have no
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: visible resemblance to the objects of which they bear the
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: name and a footnote. While in the middle of them,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: over our heads there is a white circle. With respect
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: to the name, I am influenced by the unanimous opinions
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: of all nations for what the Greeks, from its being ornamented,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: have turned Cosmos, We, from its perfect and complete elegance,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: have termed Munda's the name Calan no doubt refers to
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: its being engraved as it were with the stars. As
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh suggests. In confirmation of this idea, we may adduce
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: the zodiac, in which are twelve figures of animalimals.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: Through them.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: It is that the Sun has continued his course for
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: so many ages. I do not find that anyone has
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: doubted that there are four elements. The highest of these
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: is supposed to be fire, and hence precede the eyes
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: which both the Greeks and ourselves call by the same
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: name air. It is by the force of this vital principle,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: pervading all things and mingling with all that the Earth,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: together with the fourth element water, is balanced in the
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: middle of space. These are mutually bound together, each remaining
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: in its appropriate place by the never ceasing revolution of
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: the world. Between this body and the heavens, there are
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: suspended in this aerial spirit seven stars, separated by determinate spaces,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: which on account of their motion we call planets or
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: wandering bodies, although in reality none are. Less so the
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Sun is carried along in the midst of these a
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: body of great size and power, the ruler not only
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: of the seasons and of the different climates, but also
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: of the stars themselves and of the heavens. When we
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: consider his operations, we must regard him as the life,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: or rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: and the god of nature. He also lends his light
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: to the other stars. He is most illustrious and excellent,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: beholding all things and hearing all things, qualities which are
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: ascribed to him exclusively by the Prince of Poets Homer
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: footnote Iliad three, two hundred seventy seven and Odyssey twelve
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: three hundred twenty three.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: End a footnote.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: End of section three. Recording by phone Section four of
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter two of God. I consider it therefore
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: an indication of human weakness to inquire into the figure
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: and form of God. For whatever God be, if there
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: be any God, distinct from the world, and wherever he exists,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: he is all sense, all sight, all hearing, all life,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: all mind, and all within himself. To believe that there
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: are a number of gods derived from the virtues and
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: vices of man, as chastity, concord, understanding, hope, honor, clemency,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: and fidelity, or according to the opinion of Democritus, that
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: there are only two punishment and reward, indicates still greater folly.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: Human nature, weak and frail, as it is mindful of
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: its own infirmity, has made these divisions so that everyone
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: might have recourse to that which he supposed himself to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: stand more particularly in need of Hence we find different
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: names employed by different nations. The inferior deities are arranged
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: in classes, and diseases and plagues are deified in consequence
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: of our anxious wish to propitiate them. It was from
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: this cause that a temple was dedicated to fever at
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: the public expense on the Palatine Hill, and that an
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: altar was erected to good fortune on the Esquale. Hence
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: we may understand how it comes to pass that there
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: is a greater population of the celestials than of human beings,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: since each individual makes a separate god for himself, adopting
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: his own juno and his own genius. To suppose that
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: some gods should be old and always gray headed, and
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: others young and like children, some of a dark complexion,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: winged lame, produced from eggs, living and dying on alternate
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: days is puerile and foolish enough. But it is the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: height of impudence to imagine that they have contests and quarrels,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: and that there are gods of theft and of various crimes.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: To assist man is to be a god. This is
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: the path to eternal glory. This is the path which
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: the Roman nobles formerly pursued, And this is the path
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: which is now pursued by the greatest ruler of our age,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: Vespasian Augustus, he who has come to the relief of
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: an exhausted empire, as well as by his sons. The
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: ancient mode of remunerating those who deserved it was to
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: regard them as gods. For the names of all the gods,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: as well as of the stars that I have mentioned above,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: have been derived from their services to mankind, and with
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: respect to Jupiter and Mercury and the rest of the
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: celestial nomenclature. Who does not admit that they have reference
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: to certain natural phenomena. But it is ridiculous to suppose
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: that the great Head of all things, whatever it be,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: pays any regard to human affairs. Can we believe, or rather,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: can there be any doubt that it is not polluted
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: by such a disagreeable and complicated office. It is not
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: easy to determine which opinion would be most for the
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: advantage of man kind, since we observe some who have
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: no respect for the gods, and others who carry it
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: to a scandalous success. They are slaves to foreign ceremonies.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: They carry on their fingers, the gods and the monsters
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: whom they worship.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: deities that were engraved on rings and the footnote. They condemn,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: and they lay great stress on certain kinds of food.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: They impose on themselves dreadful ordinances, not even sleeping quietly.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: They do not marry or adopt children, or indeed do
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: anything else without the sanction of their sacred rights. There
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: are others, on the contrary, who will cheat in the
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: very capital, and will forswear themselves, even by Jupiter Tonans footnote.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: and the footnote. And while these thrive in their crimes,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: the others torment themselves with their superstitions to no purpose.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: Among these discordant opinions, mankind have discovered for themselves a
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: kind of intermediate deity by which our skepticism concerning God
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: is still increased. For all over the world, in all
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: places and at all times, Fortune is the only god
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: whom everyone invokes. She alone is spoken of, She alone
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: is accused and is supposed to be guilty. She alone
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: is in our thoughts, is praised and blamed and is
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: loaded with reproaches, wavering as she is conceived by the
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: generality of mankind to be blind, wondering, in constant, uncertain variable,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: and often favoring the unworthy. To her, are referred all
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: our losses and all our gains, And in casting up
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: the accounts of mortals, she alone balances the two pages
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: of our sheet. We are so much in the power
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: of chance that change itself is considered as a god,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: and the existence of God becomes doubtful. But there are
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: others who reject this principle and assign events to the
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: influence of the stars and to the laws of our nativity.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: They suppose that God once for all issues.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: His decrees and never afterwards interferes. This opinion begins to
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: gain ground, and both the learned and the unlearned vulgar
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: are falling into it. Hence we have the admonitions of thunder,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: the warnings of oracles, the predictions of soothsayers, and things
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: too trifling to be mentioned as sneezing and stumbling with
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: defeet reckoned among omens. The late emperor Augustus relates that
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: he put the left shoe on the wrong foot the
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: day when he was near being assaulted by his soldiers,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and such things as these so embarrass improvident mortals, that
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: among all of them, this alone is certain. That there
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: is nothing certain, and that there is nothing more proud
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: or more wretched than man. For other animals have no
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: care but to provide for their subsistence, for which the
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: spontaneous kindness of nature is all sufficient, And this one
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: circumstance renders their lot more especially preferable that they never
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: think about glory, or money or ambition, and above all
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: that they never reflect on death. The belief, however, that
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: on these points the God's superin ten human affairs is
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: useful to us, as well as that the punishment of crimes,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: although sometimes chardy from the deity being occupied with such
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: a mass of business, is never entirely remitted. And indeed
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: this constitutes the great comfort in this imperfect state of man,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: that even the deity cannot do everything, for he cannot
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: procure death for himself, even if he wished it, which
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: to man as our chief good. Nor can he make
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: mortals immortal, or recall to life those who are dead.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: Nor can he effect that he who has once lived
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: shall not have lived, or that he who has enjoyed
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: honors shall not have enjoyed them. Nor has he any
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: influence over past events, but to cause them to be forgotten.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: And if we illustrate the nature of our connection with
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: God by a less serious argument, he cannot make twice
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: ten not to be twenty, and many other things of
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: this kind. End of section four. Recording by phone Section
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: five of The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: This librifox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: phone Book two, Chapter three, The Dimensions.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: Of the World.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: The stadium is equal to one hundred and twenty five
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: of our Roman paces, or six hundred and twenty five feet.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Posidonius supposes that there is a space of not less
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: than forty stadia around the Earth. Whence mists, winds, and
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: clouds proceeded beyond this, he supposes that the air is
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: pure and liquid, consisting of uninterrupted light. From the clouded
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: region to the Moon there is a space of two
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: million of stadia, and thence to the Sun of five
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: hundred million. It is in consequence of this space that
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: the Sun, notwithstanding his immense magnitude does not burn the earth.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Many persons have imagined that the clouds rise to the
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: height of nine hundred stadia. These points are not completely
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: made out and are difficult to explain. But we have
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: given the best account of them that has been published.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: End of section five. Recording by phone Section six of
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: the Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: book two, Chapter four of the Stars which appear suddenly,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: or of comets. A few things still remain to be
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: said concerning the world, For stars are suddenly formed in
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: the heavens themselves. Of these there are various kinds. The
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: Greeks name these stars comets. We name them crinichier, as
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: if shaggy, with bloody locks and surrounded with bristles like hair.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Some of them have a mane hanging down from their
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: lower part like a long beard.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: Some vibrate like a dart.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: With a very quick motion. It was one of this
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: kind which the Emperor Titus described in his very excellent
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: poem as having been seen in his fifth consulship. And
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: this was the last of these bodies which has been observed.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: Some are short and pointed, of a pale color, and
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: like a sword, without any rays. Others of an amber
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: color emit a few rays from their margin. Only one
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: kind exhibits the figure of a casque, appearing convex and
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: emitting a smoky light. Another has the appearance of a horn.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: It is like the one which was visible when the
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: Greeks fought at Salamis. Occasionally you see one like a
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: burning torch, and again one like a horse's mane. The
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: latter often has a very rapid motion, like a circle
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: revolving on itself. There is also a white comet with
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: silver hair, so brilliant that it can scarcely be looked at, exhibiting,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: as it were, the aspect of a deity in a
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: human form. There are some also that are shaggy, having
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the appearance of a fleece surrounded by a kind of crown.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: There was one where the appearance of a mane was
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: changed into that of a spare. It happened in the
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: one hundred and ninth Olympiad, in the three hundred ninety
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: eighth year of the city footnote. According to the most
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: approved modern chronology, the middle of the one hundred and
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: ninth Olympiad corresponds to the two hundred eleventh year of
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: the city, or five hundred forty two BC.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: End a footnote.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: The shortest time during which any of them has been
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: observed to be visible is seven days, the longest one
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty days. Rome is the only place
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: in the whole world where there is a temple dedicated
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: to a comet, the one which was thought by the
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: late Emperor Augustus to be auspicious to him, from its
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: appearing during the games which he was celebrating in honor
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: of Venus, not long after the death of his father Caesar.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: He expressed his joy in these terms. During the very
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: time of these games of mine, a hairy star was
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: seen during seven days in the part of the heavens
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: which is under the Great Bear. It rose about the
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: eleventh hour of the day, was very bright, and was
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: conspicuous in all parts of the earth. The common people
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: supposed the star to indicate that the soul of Caesar
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: was admitted among the immortal gods. This is what he
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: proclaimed in public, But in secret he rejoiced at this
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: auspicious omen, interpreting it as produced for himself, and to
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: confess the truth. It really proved a sanitary omen for
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: the world at large. Some persons suppose that these stars
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: are permanent, and that they moved through their proper orbits,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: but that they are only visible when they recede from
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: the sun. Others suppose that they are produced by an
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: accidental vapor together with the force of fire, and that
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: from this circumstances they are liable to be dissipated.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 2: End of section six.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: Recording by phone, Section seven of The Boys and Girls
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This librifox recording is in
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Recording by Phone book two, Chapter five,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: The Doctrine of Hipparchus about the stars hip. Archus, who
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: can never be sufficiently commended as one who more especially
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: proved the relation of the stars to man, and that
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: our souls are a portion of heaven, discovered a new
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: star that was produced in his own age, and by
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: observing its motions on the day in which it's shone,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: it was led to doubt whether this does not often happen,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: that those stars have motion which we suppose to be fixed.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: And the same individual attempted what might have seemed presumptuous
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: even in a deity to number the stars for posterity,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: and to express their relations by appropriate names, having previously
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: devised instruments by which he might mark the place and
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: the magnitude of each individual star footnote. Nothing is known
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: respecting the nature of these instruments and the footnote. In
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: this way it might be easily discovered not only whether
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: they were destroyed or produced, but whether they changed their
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: relative positions, and likewise whether they were increased or diminished,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: The heavens being thus left as an inheritance to anyone
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: who might be found competent to complete his plan. End
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: of section seven. Recording by phone Section eight of The
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This LibriVox
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: recording is in a public domain recording I phone Book two,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of the stars, which are named Castor and Pollux.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: I have seen during the night watches of the soldiers
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: a luminous appearance like a star attached to the javelins
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: on the ramparts. They also settle on the yard arms
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: and other parts of ships while sailing, producing a kind
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: of vocal sound like that of birds flitting about when
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: they occur singly. They are mischievous, so as even to
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: sink the vessels, and if they strike on the lower
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: part of the keel, setting them on fire, when there
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: are two of them, they are considered auspicious and are
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: thought to predict a prosperous voyage, as it is said
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: that they drive away that dreadful and dre a fig
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: meteor named Helena. On this account, their efficacy is ascribed
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: to Castor and Pollux, and they are invoked as gods.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: They also occasionally shine round the heads of men in
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: the evening, which is considered as predicting something very important.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: This is sent by Liva to have occurred to Servius
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Tullius while he was a child lib I, cap. Thirty nine,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: and by Virgil to Ascanius ai at two six hundred
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: thirty two to five. End the footnote. But there is
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: great uncertainty respecting the cause of all these things, and
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: they are concealed in the majesty of nature. End of
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: section eight. Recording by phone section nine of The Boys
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This LibriVox recording
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Recording by phone book two,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: chapter seven of Thunder and Lightning. It cannot be denied
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: that fire proceeding from the stars which are above the
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: clouds may fall on them, as we frequently observe on
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: serene evenings, and that the air is agitated by the
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: impulse as darts when they are hurled with through the air,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: and when it arrives at the cloud, a discordant kind
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: of vapor is produced, as when hot iron is plunged
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: into water and a wreath of smoke is evolved, hence
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: arise squalls. And if wind or vapor be struggling in
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: the cloud, thunder is discharged. If it bursts out with
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: a flame, there is a thunderbolt. If it be long
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: in forcing out its way, it is simply a flash
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: of lightning. By the latter, the cloud is simply rent
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: by the four it is shattered. Thunder is produced by
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: the stroke given to the condensed air, and hence it
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: is that the fire darts from the chinks of the clouds.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: It is possible also that the vapor which has risen
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: from the earth being repelled by the stars may produce
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: thunder when it is pent up in a cloud. Nature
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: restraining the sound whilst the vapor is struggling to escape,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: but when it does escape, the sound bursting forth, as
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: is the case with bladders that are distended with air.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: It is possible also that the spirit, whatever it be,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: may be kindled by friction when it is so violently projected.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: It is possible that by the dashing of the two clouds,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: the lightning may flash out, as is the case when
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: two stones are struck against each other. We have accounts
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: of many different kinds of thunderbolts. Those which are dry
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: do not burn objects, but dissipate them, while those which
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: are moist do not burn, but blacken them. There is
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: a third kind, which is called bright lightning, of a
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: very wonderful nature, by which casks are emptied without the
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: vessels themselves being injured, or there being any other trace
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: left of their operation. Gold, copper, and silver are melted,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: while the bags which contain them are not in the
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: least burned, nor even the wax seal much defaced. Among
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: the prognostics which took place at the time of Cataline's conspiracy,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: Marcus Herrenius, a magistrate of the borrow of Pompeii, was
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: struck by lightning when the sky was without clouds. End
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: of section nine, recording by phone. Section ten of the
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This liberhox
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: or coord is in the public domain recording by phone
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter eight, Nature of the Earth. Next comes
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: the earth, on which alone, of all parts of nature,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: we have bestowed the names that implies maternal veneration. It
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: is appropriated to man as the heavens are to God.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: She receives us at our birth, nourishes us when born,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: and ever afterwards, supports us, lastly embracing us in our bosom.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: When we are rejected by the rest of nature. She
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: then covers us with the special tenderness rendered sacred to us.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: Inasmuch as she renders us sacred, bearing our monuments and titles,
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: continuing our names, and extending our memory in opposition to
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: the shortness of life in our anger, we imprecate her
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: on those who are now no more, as if we
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: were ignorant that she is the only being who can
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: never be angry with man. The water passes into showers,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: is concreted into hail, swells into rivers, is precipitated in torrents.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: The air is condensed into clouds, rages, and squalls. But kind,
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: mild and indulgent earth always ministering to the wants of mortals.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: How many things do we compel her to produce spontaneously?
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: What odors and flowers, nutritive juices, forms and colors? With
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: What good faith does she render back all that has
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: been entrusted to her. It is the vital spirit which
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: must bear the blame of producing noxious animals, for the
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: earth is constrained to receive the seeds of them, and
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: to support them when they are produced. The fault lies
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: in the evil nature which generates them. The earth will
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: no longer harbor a serpent after it has attacked anyone.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: And thus she even demands punishment in the name of
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: those who are indifferent about it themselves. She pours forth
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: a profusion of medicinal plants, and is always producing something
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: for the use of man. But it must be acknowledged
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: that everything which the earth has produced as a remedy
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: for our evils we have converted into the poison of
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: our lives. For do we not use iron, which we
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: cannot do without, for this purpose? But although this case
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: of mischief has been produced, we ought not to complain.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: We ought not to be ungrateful to this one part
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: of nature. How many luxuries and how many insults does
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: she not bear for us? She is cast into the sea,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: and in order that we may introduce seas into her bosom,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: she is washed away by the waves. She is continually
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: tortured for her iron, her timber stone, fire, corn, and
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: even much more subservient to our luxuries than to our
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: mere support. What indeed she endures on our surface might
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: be tolerated, But we penetrate also into her bowels, digging
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: out the veins of gold and silver, and the oars
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: of copper and lead. We also search for gems and
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: certain small pebbles, driving our trenches to a great depth.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: We tear out her entrails in order to extract the
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: gems with which we may load our fingers. How many
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: hands are worn down that one little joint may be ornamented.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: If the infernal regions really existed, certainly these burrows of
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: avarice and luxury would have penetrated into them. And truly
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: we wonder that this same earth should have produced anything noxious.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: But I suppose the savage beasts protect her and keep
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: off our sacrilegious hands. For do we not dig among
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: serpents and handle poisonous plants along with those veins of gold.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: But the goddess shows herself more propitious to us, inasmuch
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: as all this wealth ends in crimes, slaughter and war,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: and that while we drench her with our blood, we
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: cover her with unburied bones, and being covered with these,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: and her anger being thus appeased, she conceals the.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 2: Crimes of mortals.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: I consider the ignorance of her nature as one of
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: the evil effects of an ungrateful mind. Everyone agrees that
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: it has the most perfect figure. We always speak of
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: the ball of the earth, and we admit it to
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: be a globe bounded by the poles. It has not,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: indeed the form of an absolute sphere from the number
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: of lofty mountains and flat plains. But if the termination
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: of the lines be bounded by a curve, this would
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: compose a perfect sphere. And this we learn from arguments
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: drawn from the nature of things, although not from the
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: same considerations which we may use of with respect to
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: the heavens. For in these the hollow convexity everywhere bends
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: on itself and leans upon the earth as its center,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: whereas the earth rises up, solid and dense, like something
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: that swells up and is protruded outwards. The heavens bend
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: towards the center, while the earth goes from the center,
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: the continual rolling of the heavens about it, forcing its
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: immense globe into the form of a sphere. On the
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: question whether there be antipodes, there is a great contest
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: between the learned and the vulgar. We maintain that there
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: are men dispersed over every part of the earth, that
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: they stand with their feet turned towards each other, that
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: the vault of the heavens appears alike to all of them,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: and that they all of them appear to tread equally
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: on the middle of the earth. If anyone should ask
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: why those situated opposite to us do not fall, we
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: directly ask in return whether those on the opposite side
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: do not wonder that we do not fall. But I
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: may make a remark that will appear plausible even to
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: the most unlearned, that if the Earth were of the
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: figure of an unequal globe, like the seed of a pine,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: still it may be inhabited in every part. But of
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: how little moment is this? When we have another miracle
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: rising up to our notice, the earth itself is pendent
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: and does not fall with us. It is doubtful whether
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: this be from the force of the spirit, which is
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: contained in the universe, or whether it would fall, did
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: not nature resist by allowing of no place where it
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: might fall. For as the seed of fire is nowhere
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: but in fire, nor of water except in water, nor
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: of air except in air. So there is no situation
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: for the earth except in itself, everything else repelling it.
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: It is indeed wonderful that it should form a globe,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: when there is so much flat surface of the sea
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: and of the plains. And this was the opinion of
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: de Circuz, a peculiarly learned man, who measured the heights
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: of mountains under the direction of the kings, and estimated Pelion,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: which was the highest, at one thousand, two hundred and
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: fifty paces perpendicular. And consider this as not affecting the
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: round figure of the globe. But this appears to me
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: to be doubtful, as I well know that the summits
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: of some of the alps rise up by a long
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: space of not less than fifty thousand paces. But what
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: the vulgar most strenuously contend against is to be compelled
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: to believe that the water is forced into a rounded figure.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: Yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: the phenomena of nature, For we see everywhere that drops
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: they hang down assume the form of small globes, and
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: when they are covered with dust or have the down
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: of leaves spread over them, they are observed to be
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: completely round. And when a cup is filled, the liquid
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: swells up in the middle. But on account of the
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: subtile nature of the fluid and its inherent softness, the
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: fact is more easily ascertained by our reason than by
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Earth's sight. And it is even more wonderful that if
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: a very little fluid only be added to a cup
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: as much as would weigh twenty denari. The reason of
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: this is that what is dropped in raises up the
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: fluid at the top, while what is poured on it
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: slides off from the projecting surface. It is from the
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: same cause that the land is not visible from the
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: body of a ship when it may be seen from
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: the mast, and that when a vessel is receding, if
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: any bright object be fixed to the mast, it seems
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: gradually to descend, and finally to become invisible. And the ocean,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: which we admit to be without limits, if it had
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: any other figure, could it cohere and exist without falling,
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: there being no external margin to contain it. We must
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: believe that the great artist Nature has so arranged it
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: that as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: itself and without moisture, nor on the other hand, can
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: the water subsist unless it be supported by the earth.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: They are connected by a mutual union. The earth opens
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: their harbors, while the water pervades the whole earth within,
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: without and above its veins, running in all directions, like
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: connecting links and bursting out on even the highest ridges.
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: Where forced up by the air and pressed out by
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: the weight of the earth, it shoots forth as from
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: a pipe, and is so far from being in danger
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: of falling that it bounds up to the highest and
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: most lofty places. Hence, the reason is obvious why the
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: seas are not increased by the daily accession of so
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: many rivers. The earth has, therefore the whole of its
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: globe girt on every side by the sea flowing round it.
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: And this is not the point to be investigated by arguments,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: but what has been ascertained by experience. The globe is
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: divided into five parts termed zones, and all that portion
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: is subject to severe cold and perpetual frost, which is
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: under the two extremities about each of the poles, the
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: nearer of which is called the north and the opposite
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: the South pole. The middle of the earth, over which
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: is the orbit of the sun, is porched and burned
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: by the flame, and is consumed by being so near
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: the heat. There are only two of the zones which
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: are temperate, those which lie between the torret and the
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: frigid zones, and these are separated from each other in
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies. It appears, therefore,
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: that the heavens take from us three parts of the Earth.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: How much the ocean steals is uncertain. The curve of
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: the globe both reveals and conceals different objects from the
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: inhabitants of its different parts. If the Earth had been flat,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: everything would have been seen at the same time from
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: every part of it, and the nights would not have
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: been unequal. While the equal intervals of twelve hours which
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: are now observed only in the middle of Earth, would
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: in that case have been the same everywhere. Hence it
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: is that there is not any one night and day
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: the same in all parts of the Earth at the
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: same time, the intervention of the globe producing night and
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: its turning round producing day. End of section ten. Recording
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: by phone Section eleven of the Boys and Girls Pliny
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: by Pliny the Elder. This librifox recording is in the
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by phone Book two, Chapter nine Italy.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: I am by no means unaware that I may be
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: justly accused of ingratitude and indolence if I describe briefly
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: and in a cursory manner, the land, which is at
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: once the foster child and the parent of all lands,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: chosen by the providence of the gods, to render even
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: Heaven itself more glorious footnote, by adding its deified emperors
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: to the number of its divinities, and the footnote, to
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: unite the scattered empires of the Earth, to bestow a
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: polish upon men's manners, to unite the discordant and uncouth
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: dialects of so many different nations by the powerful ties
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: of one common language, to confer the enjoyments of discourse
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: and of civilization upon mankind, to become, in short, a
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: mother country of all nations of the earth. But how
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: shall I commence this undertaking? So vast is the number
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: of celebrated places, what man living could enumerate them all?
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: And so great the renown attached to each individual nation
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: and subject, that I feel myself quite at a loss.
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: The city of Rome alone, which forms a portion of it,
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: a face well worthy of shoulders, so beauteous, How large
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: a work would it require for an appropriate descript And
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: then too, the coast of Campania, taken singly by itself,
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: so blessed with natural beauties and opulence, that it is
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: evident that when Nature formed it, she took delight in
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: accumulating all her blessings in a single spot. How am
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: I to do justice to it? And then the climate,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: with its eternal freshness and so replete with health and vitality,
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: the sereneness of the weather so enchanting, the fields so fertile,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: the hillsides so sunny, the thickets so free from every danger,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: the groves so cool and shady, the forests with a
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: vegetation so varying, and so luxuriant, their breezes descending from
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: so many a mountain, the fruitfulness of its grain, its vines,
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: and its olives, so transcendent, Its flocks with fleeces so noble,
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: its bulls with next, so sinewy, its lakes recurring in
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: never ending succession, Its numerous rivers and springs, which refresh
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: it with their waters on every side, its seas, so
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: many in number, its havens, and the bosom of its lands,
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: opening everywhere to the comerce of all the world, and
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: eagerly stretching forth into the very midst of the waves,
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: for the purpose of aiding, as it were, the endeavors
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: of mortals. For the present, I forbear to speak of
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: its genius, its manners, its men, and the nations whom
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: it has conquered by eloquence and force of arms. The
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: very Greeks, themselves a race fond in the extreme of
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: expatiating on their own praises, have amply given judgment in
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: its favor when they named but a small part of
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: it Magna gratia. But we must be content to do
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: on this occasion as we have done in our description.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 2: Of the heavens. We must only touch upon some of.
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: These points, and take notice of but a few of
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: its stars. I only beg my readers to bear in
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: mind that I am thus hastening on for the purpose
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: of giving a general description of everything that is known
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: to exist throughout the whole earth. I may premise by
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: observing that this land very much resembles in shape an
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: oak leaf, being much longer than it is broad towards
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: the top, it inclines to the left, while it terminates
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: in the form of an Amazonian buckler, in which the
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: spot at the central projection is the place called Cocinthos,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: While it sends forth two horns at the end of
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: its crescent shaped base, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: on the left. It extends in length one thousand and
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: twenty miles if we measure from the foot of the
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: Alps at Pretoria Augusta, through the city of Rome and
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: Capua to the town of Regium, which is situated on
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: the shoulder of the peninsula, just at the bend of
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: the neck, as it were. Its breath is variable, being
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: four hundred and ten miles between the two seas of
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: the far north at about the middle and in the
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: the River a Turnus flows into the Adriatic Sea to
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: the mouth of the Tiber. The distance is one hundred
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: and thirty six miles and a little less from Custrum
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: Novum on the Adriatic Sea to Alsium on the Tuscan.
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: But in no place does it exceed two hundred miles
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: in breath end section eleven. Recording by phone section twelve
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: of The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: The Slipperbooks. Recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: phone Book two, chapter ten. The Hyperboreans in the far
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: north beyond the Rufaean Mountains footnote probably these mountains where
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: a western branch of the ural chain, and the footnote
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: is the region known by the name of Terophoros footnote
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: from the Greek Terophoros wing bearing or feather bearing, and
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: the footnote because of the perpetual fall of snow there,
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: the flakes of which resemble feathers. A part of the
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: world which has been condemned by the decree of nature
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: to lie immersed in thick darkness, suited for nothing but
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the chilling blasts of the northern winds. Behind these mountains,
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: and beyond the region of the northern winds, there dwells,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: if we choose to believe it, a happy race known
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: as the hyperbore footnote. This legendary rum was said to
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: dwell in the regions beyond Boreas, or the northern wind
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: which issued from the Rufaean mountains, the name of which
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: was derived from ripa or hurricanes issuing from a cavern,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: and which these heights boardered off from the Hyperboreans and
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: northern blasts and enjoy a life of supreme happiness and
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: undisturbed repose. Here, says Humboldt, are the first views of
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: a natural science, which explains the distribution of heat and
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: the difference of climates by local clauses, by the direction
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: of the winds, the proximity of the sun, and the
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: action of a moist or saline principle, and a footnote
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: a race that lives to an extreme old age, and
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: which has been the subject of many marvelous stories.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: Pindarf says in the Pythia ten fifty six muse is
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: no stranger to their manners. The dances of girls and
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: the sweet melody of the lyre and pipe resound on
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: every side, and wreathing their locks with the glistening bay.
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: They feast joyously. For this sacred race. There is no
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: doom of sickness or of disease. But they live apart
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: from toil and battles, undisturbed by the exacting nemesis and
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: a footnote. At this spot are supposed to be the
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: for six months together, given by the sun in one
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: continuous day. To these people, there is but one rising
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: of the sun for the year, and that at the
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: summer solstice. Footnote Pomponius Mela, who asserts that the sun
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: rises here at the vernal and sets at the autumnal equinox,
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: is right in his position, and Pliny is incorrect, and
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: the footnote and but one setting at the winter solstice.
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: This region, warmed by the rays of the sun, is
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: of a most delightful temperature and exempt from every noxious blast.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: The abodes of the natives are the woods and groves.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: The gods receive their worships seemedly and in groups, while
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown.
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 2: Death comes upon them only when.
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: Satiated with life, after a career of feasting in an
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: old age, seated with every luxury, they leap from a
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: certain rock there into the sea, and this they deem
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the most desirable mode of ending existence. Some writers have
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: placed these people not in Europe, but at the very
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: verge of the shores of Asia. Others again have placed
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: them midway between the two suns, at the spot where
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: it sets to the Antipodes and rises to us. Thing, however,
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: that cannot possibly be in consequence of the vast tract
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: of sea which they are intervenes. Those writers who place
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: them nowhere but under a day which lasts for six months,
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: state that in the morning they saw, at midday they
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: reap at sunset, they gather in the fruits of the trees,
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: and during the night conceal themselves in caves. Nor a
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: we at liberty to entertain any doubts as to the
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: existence of this race. So many authors are there who
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: assert that they were in the habit of sending their
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: first fruits to Delos to present them to Apollo, whom
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: they especially worship. Virgins used to carry them, who for
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: many years were held in high veneration, and received the
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: rights of hospitality from the nations that lay on the route,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: until at last, in consequence of repeated violations of good faith,
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: the Hyperboreans came to the determination to deposit these offerings
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: upon the frontiers of the people who adjoined them, and they,
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: in their turn and word, to convey them onto their neighbors,
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: and so from one to the other, till they should
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: have arrived at Delos. However, this custom, even in time
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: fell into disuse. End of section twelve recording by phone,
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: Section thirteen of the Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: the Elder. This Libripox recording is in the public domain,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: Book two, Chapter eleven. Britannia, opposite to the west coast
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: of Europe is the island called Britannia, so celebrated in
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: the records of Greece and of our own country footnote.
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: as superior to all other islands in the world. Dionysius,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: in his Perigiuses says that no other islands whatsoever can
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: claim equality with those of Britain, and it is situated
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: to the northwest and with a large tract of intervening sea,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: lies opposite to Germany, Gaul and Spain by far the
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: greater part of Europe. Its former name was Albion footnote,
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: said to have been so called from the whiteness of
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: its cliffs opposite the coast of Gaul, and the footnote.
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 2: This island is distant.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: From the coast of the nation of the Marinis at
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: the spot where the passage across is the shortest fifty
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: miles footnote. The distance here given by Pliny is far
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: too great, the shortest distance from Dover to Calle being
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: twenty one miles, and the footnote Pythius and Isidorus say
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: that its circumference is four thousand, eight hundred and seventy
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: five miles. It is barely thirty years since any extensive
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: knowledge of it was gained by the successes of the
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: Roman arms, and even as yet they have not penetrated
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: beyond the vicinity of the Caledonian Forest footnote. Probably the
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: Grampian Range is here referred to, and a footnote Agrippa
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: believes its length to be eight hundred miles, and its
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: breadth three hundred. He also thinks that the breadth of
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: Hibernia is the same, but that its length is less
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: by two hundred miles. This last island is situated beyond Britannia,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: the passage across being the shortest from the territory of
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: the Silures footnote, the people of South Wales, and the
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: footnote a distance of thirty miles. Of the remaining islands,
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: none is said to have a greater circumference than one
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five miles. Among these there are the
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: Orcades footnote, the Orkney Islands and the footnote forty in
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: number and situated within a short distance of each other,
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: the seven islands called at moday footnote, probably the islands
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: now known as the Shetlands, and the footnote. The most
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: remote of all that we find mentioned is footnote. The
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous.
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: In the extreme, the common and apparently the best founded
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: opinion is that Thol is the island of Iceland and
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: a footnote in which there is no night at the
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: summer solstice when the sun is passing through the signs
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: of cancer, while on the other hand, at the winter
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: solstice there is no day. Some writers are of opinion
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: that this state of things lasts for six whole months together.
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: End of section thirteen. Recording by phone Section fourteen of
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: book two, Chapter twelve. Mount Atlas, through the nation of
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: the Ottololis lies the road to Mount Atlas, the most
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: fabulous locality even in Africa. From the midst of the sands.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: According to the story, this mountain raises its head to
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: the heavens footnote. Like others of the ancient writers, Pliny
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: falls into the error of considering Atlas not as an
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: extensive chain of mountains, but as an isolated mountain surrounded
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: by sands. With reference to its height, the whole range
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: declines considerably from west to east. The highest summits in Morocco,
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: reaching to nearly thirteen thousand feet in tunis not five
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: thousand and a footnote. Rugged and craggy on the side
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: which looks towards the shores of the ocean to which
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: it has given its name, while on that which faces
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: the interior of Africa. It is shaded by dense groves
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: of trees and refreshed by flowing streams, fruits of all
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: kinds springing up there spontaneously, to such an extent as
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: more than to satiate every possible desire. Throughout the daytime,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: no inhabitant.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 2: Is to be seen.
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: All is silent, like that dreadful stillness which reigns in
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: the desert. A religious horror steals imperceptibly over the feelings
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: of those who approach, and they feel themselves smitten with all.
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: At the stupendous aspect of its summit, which reaches beyond
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: the clouds, and well nigh approaches the very orb.
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 2: Of the moon. At night, they say, it gleams with.
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: Fires innumerable lighted up. It is then the scene of
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: the gambols of the sater crew, while it re echoes
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: with the notes of the flute and the pipe, and
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: the clash of drums and cymbals. This is what authors
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: of high character have stated. In addition to the labors
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: which hercules and pursues, they are experienced, the space which
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: intervenes before you arrive at this mountain is immense, and
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: the country quite unknown. End of section fourteen, recording by phone,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: Section fifteen of The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: the Elder. This Libripox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: Recording by phone, Chapter thirteen The Island of Taprobana Taprobana footnote.
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: It is now universally agreed among the learned that the
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: island of Taprobana is the modern Ceylon end The footnote
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: under the name of the Land of the Antipodes was
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: long looked upon as another world. The age and the
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: arms of Alexander the Great were the first to give
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: satisfactory proof.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 2: That it was an island.
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: One Scutus, the commander of his fleet, has informed us
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: that the elephants of this island are larger and better
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: adapted for warfare than those of India. And from Megasthenes
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: we learned that it is divided by a river, and
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: that their country is more productive of gold and pearls
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: of great size than even India. Irritusthenes has also given
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: the dimensions of this island as being seven thousand stadia
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: in length and five thousand in breath. He states also
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: that there are no cities, but villages to the number
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: of seven hundred. It begins at the Eastern Sea and
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: lies extended opposite.
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 2: To India east and west.
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: In former times, when the navigation was confined to vessels
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: constructed of papyrus, with the tackle peculiar to the nile,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: this island was supposed to be twenty days sail from
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: the country of the Prazai footnote, a general term probably
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: for the great peninsula of India below the Ganges and
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: the footnote. But the distance has been estimated at no
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: more than seven days sail.
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: It is probable that the passage here referred to is
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: from Cape comorin to Ceylon, and not from Cape Rimaran Core,
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: the nearest part of the continent end a footnote reckoned
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: at the speed which can be attained by vessels of
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: our construction. The seed that lies between the island and
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: the mainland is full of shallows, not more than six
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: paces in death. But in certain channels it is of
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: such extraordinary death that no anchor has ever found a bottom.
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: For this reason, it is that the vessels are constructed
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: with prows at either end, so that there may be
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: known as necessity for tacking while navigating these extremely narrow channels.
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: The tonnage of these vessels is three thousand and foray.
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: In traversing their seas, the people of Tapurbana take no
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: observation of the stars, and indeed the Great Bear is
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 1: not visible to them. But they carry birds out to sea,
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: which they let go from time to time, and so
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: follow their course as they make for the land. They
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: devote only four months in the year to the pursuits
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: of navigation, and are particularly careful not to trust themselves
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: on the sea during the next hundred days after our
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: summer solstice, for in those seas it is at that
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: time the middle of winter. So much we learn from
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: the ancient writers. It has fallen to our lot, however,
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: to obtain a still more accurate knowledge of these people.
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: For during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, an embassy
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: came from even this distant island to Rome. Circumstances under
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: which this took place were as follows. Anneus Blocamus had
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: farmed from the treasury the revenues arising from.
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 2: The Red Sea.
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: A certain freedman of his, while sailing around Arabia, was
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: carried away by a gale from the north beyond the
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: coast of Carmania. In the course of fifteen days he
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: had drifted to Hippurros, a port of Takurbana, where he
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: was most kindly and most hospitably received by the king, and,
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: having after a study of six months become well acquainted
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: with the language, was enabled to answer all his inquiries
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: relative to the Romans and their emperor. But of all
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: that he heard, the King was more particularly struck with
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: surprise at our rigid notions of justice, on ascertaining that
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: among the coins he found on the captive, the dinarai
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: were all of equal weight, although the different figures on
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: them plainly showed that they had been struck in the
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: reigns of seven emperors. By this circumstance especially, the King
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: was prompted to form an alliance with the Romans, and
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: accordingly sent to Rome an embassy consisting of four persons,
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: the chief of whom was Rakia's footnote. Possibly the word
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: radija or raja, denoting the rank which he held, may
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: have been here taken by Pliny for his name and
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: a footnote. From these persons, we learned that in Tapurbana
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: there are five hundred towns, and that there is a
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: harbor that lies facing the south and adjoining the city
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: of Palissimundus, the most famous city in the isle, the
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: king's place of residence, and containing a population of two
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand. They also informed us that in the interior
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 1: there is a lake called Megisba, three hundred and seventy
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: five miles in circumference and containing islands which are fertile,
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: though for pasturage only in this lake, they informed as
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: two rivers take their rise, one of which called Palaisi Mundus,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: flows into the harbor near the city of that name
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: by three channels, the narrowest of which is five stadia
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: in width, the largest fifteen, while the other, Sedara by name,
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: takes a direction northward towards the Indian coast. We learned
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: also that the nearest point of the Indian coast is
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: a promontory known as Colliacum footnote probably Cape romanan Core,
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: which is in reality the nearest point to the coast
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: of Ceylon and the footnote distant from the island's four
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: days sail, and that midway between them lies the island
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: of the Sun. They stated also that those seas are
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: of a deep green tint, besides which there are numerous
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: trees growing at the bottom, so that the rudders of
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: the vessels frequently break off portions of their foliage.
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: He alludes to coral reefs, no doubt, and the footnote
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: they were as much astonished at the constellations which are
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: visible to us, the Great Bear and the plaids footnote.
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: The Romans evidently misunderstood their language, for, as Consolin remarks,
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: it is quite impossible that the playates should be a
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: constellation unknown at that time to the people of Ceylon.
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, it will be equally true
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: that the Great Bear was concealed from them and the
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: footnote as though they had now beheld a new expanse
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: of the heavens. And they declared that in their country
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: the moon can only be seen above the horizon from
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: the eighth to its sixteenth day.
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 2: Footnote.
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: This also originated in misapprehension of their language on the
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: part of the Romans and the footnote. They also stated
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: that Canopus, a large bright star, gives light to them
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: by night. But what surprised them more than anything else
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: was that the shadow of their bodies was thrown towards
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: our hemisphere. Footnote. In Ceylon seven months in the year
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: the shadows fell to the north, and during the remaining
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: five to the south. And the footnote. They also informed
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: us that the side of their island, which lies opposite
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: to India, is ten thousand stadia in length and runs
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: in a southeasterly direction, that beyond the Emodian mountains they
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: looked towards the sire footnote. The sire here spoken of
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: must not be taken for the series or supposed Chinese,
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: and the footnote whose acquaintance they had also made in
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: the pursuits of commerce, that the father of Racas had
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: frequently visited their country, and that the Siree always came
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: to meet them on their arrival. These people, they said,
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: exceeded the ordinary human height, at flaxen hair and blue eyes,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking,
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: having no language of their own for the purpose of
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: communicating their thoughts. The rest of their information relative to
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: the Sirie was of a similar nature to that communicated
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: by our merchants. It was to the effect that the
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: merchandise on sale was left by them upon the opposite
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: bank of the river on their coast, and it was
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: then removed by the natives if they thought proper to
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: deal in terms of exchange. On no grounds ought luxury
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: with greater reason to be detested by us than if
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: we only transport our thoughts to these scenes, and then
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: reflect what are its demands, to what distant spots it
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 1: sends in order to satisfy them? And for how mean
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 1: and how unworthy an end. But yet Taprabana, even isolated
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: as it is by nature from the rest of the world,
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: is not exempt from our vices. Gold and silver are
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: held in esteem.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 2: Even there.
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: They have a marble which resembles tortoiseshell in appearance. This,
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: as well as their pearls and precious stones, is highly
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: valued all our luxuries. In fact, those even of the
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: most exquisite nature, are there carried to the very highest pitch.
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: They asserted that their wealth was much greater than ours,
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: but admitted that we knew better than they how to
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: obtain real enjoyment from opulence. In this island, no slavery exists.
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: They do not prolong their sleep to daybreak, nor do
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: they sleep during any part of the day. Their buildings
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: are only of a moderate height from the ground. The
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: price of corn is always the same. They have no
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 1: quarts of law and no litigation Hercules is the deity
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: whom they worship, and their king is chosen by the people.
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: An aged man, always distinguished for his mild and clement disposition,
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: and without children. If after he has been elected king,
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: he happens to become the father of children, his abdication
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: is the consequence. This is done that there may be
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: no danger of the sovereign power becoming hereditary. Thirty advisers
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: are provided for him by the people, and it is
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: only by the advice of the majority of them that
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: any man is condemned to capital punishment. Even then, the
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: person so condemned has a right of appealing to the people,
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: in which case a jury consisting of seventy persons is appointed.
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: Should these acquit the accused, the thirty councilors are no
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: longer held in any estimation, but are visited with the
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: greatest disgrace. The king wears the costume of father liber
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: footnote or Bacchus. This means that he wears a long
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: robe with a train, much like the dress in fact
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: which was worn on the stage by tragic actors and
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: the footnote, while the rest of the people dressed like
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: the natives of Arabia. If the king is found guilty
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: of any offense, he is condemned to death, but no
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: one slays him. All turn their backs upon him and
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: refuse to hold any communication or even discourse with him.
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: Their festivals are celebrated with the chase, the most valued
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: sport being the pursuit of the tiger and the elephant.
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: The lands are carefully tilled. The vine is not cultivated there,
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: but of other fruits there is great abundance. They take
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: great delight in fishing, and especially in catching turtles, beneath
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: the shells of which whole families find abode of such
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: vast size are they to be found. These people look
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: upon a hundred years as a comparatively short life. So
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: much have we learned respecting Taprobana. End of section fifteen,
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: recording by phone. End of the Boys and Girls, Pliny,
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: Volume one by Pliny the Elder