the works of men of note, although possibly he was sometimes deceived by spurious writings. He frequently gives us to understand that he himself intends to maintain a cautious and critical frame of mind, and he makes great pretensions to immunity from that credulousness of human nature over which he will occasionally smile or philosophize.[1] When we take up Aristotle's History of Animals and Seneca's Natural Questions, it will become evident that Pliny's "science" was not very different in quality from that of the Greeks or from that of his own age. If he seldom gives us a clear-cut or complete exposition of a subject, it is probably because there was seldom one to be found. If he seems in a chronic state of mental confusion and incoherency, it is because his task staggered him. His work was by its nature so far impersonal that we can attribute its defects only in part to his personality.
On the whole, then, we probably shall not be greatly misled if we regard the Historia Naturalis as a sort of epitome of what men had believed about nature in the past or did believe in Pliny's own day. The author may not have portrayed past and present thought at their best but he portrayed them, and that in detail. "The greatest gull of antiquity "[2] was the Boswell of ancient science.
- ↑ Nat. Hist., bk. xxvi, ch. 9. "Mirum esset profecto hucusque profectam credulitatem antiquorum saluberrimis ortam initiis, si in ulla re modum humana ingenia novissent atque non hanc ipsam medicinam ab Asclepiade repertam probaturi suo loco assemus evectam ultra Magos etiam. Haec est omni in re animorum condicio, ut a necessariis orsa primo cuncta pervenerint ad nimium." Cf. also bk. xxviii, ch. i. "Quamquam et ipsi consensu prope iudicata eligere laboravimus potiusque curae rerum quam copiae institimus." In Pliny's dedication, however, occurs a sentence which gives one the impression that he felt rather in duty bound to accept tradition. "Res ardua, vetustis novitatem dare, novis auctoritatem, obseletis nitorem, obscuris lucem, fastiditis gratiam, dubiis fidem, omnibus vero naturam et naturae suae omnia."
- ↑ Quoted without reference by E. Eggleston, The Transit of Civiliza-
