fes: however he enjoys public offices, is admitted into council, and even pleads in public; which rendered this action more ridiculous and remarkable. In the mean time, the madness of another has damped PAULUS. In rehearsals, great care fhould be taken, that not only the perfons, who rehearse, but their audience alfo, fhould enjoy a perfect fanity of mind. Adieu. OBSERVATION S. An unlucky jeft, thrown out by a madman, is fcarce ever to be recovered; nor is it fafe, in public fpeeches of any kind, to ask questions: they often draw on very bitter replies. Thus the preacher, who, in the vehemence of a tedious fermon, cried out; where fhall I place my faint? was answered loudly by one of his audience, Here, I entreat you; I will go away, and leave room for him. PASSIENUS PAULUS feems to have made his ancestor PROPERTIUS the pattern of his poetical writings; and to have rehearsed his elegies publicly, in imitation of that poet; at whofe rehearsals OVID was often prefent; Sæpe fuos folitus recitare PROPERTIUS ignes, To me PROPERTIUS would his loves recite, We fhall find the character of PASSIENUS PAULUS repeated, and more fully difcuffed hereafter. His works must have been a great lofs to pofterity. In this epiftle he is compared to his kinfman PROPERTIUS, and in the ninth book, PLINY fays, "If fimilitude of genius is a proof of "affinity, PAULUS muft appear very nearly related to Ho"RACE. This letter ought to have been immediately fucceeded, by the twenty fecond epiftle of the ninth book. a Ovid de triftibus, lib. 4. eleg. 10. C 2 EPISTLE EPISTLE XVI. PLINY to CORNELIUS TACITUS. You OU are defirous, that I fhould give you an account of the death of my uncle; that you may be enabled to transmit it to pofterity with the greater truth. I return you thanks. I forefee, that his death, when celebrated by you, muft procure eternal honour to his name; for although his fall was attended by the deftruction of most beautiful territories, feeming, as it were, destined to be remembered equally with those nations and cities, who perish by fome memorable event; although he had compiled works both numerous, and lasting; yet the immortality of your writings will lengthen out the character, which he has established to himself. I confider it as a bleffing, to be poffeffed of endowments, which either qualify us for actions worthy of public record, or infpire us to write any thing, worthy of public attention. But, I think those perfons peculiarly favoured from heaven, who obtain both thefe qualifications. My uncle, by his own works, and by yours, may be numbered among these laft. For which reason, I more readily undertake, and even with for the employment, that you enjoin. He was at Mifenum, where he had the command of a fleet, which was ftationed there. On the ninth of the calends of September, about the seventh hour, my mother informed him, that a cloud appeared of unusual fize and shape. After having repofed himself in the fun, and used the cold bath, he had tafted a flight repaft, and was returned to his studies; he immediately called for his fandals, and a On the 23d of August. One o'clock. re repaired to an higher point of view, from whence he might more plainly difcern this prodigy. The cloud, (the fpectators could not diftinguish at a distance from what mountain it arose, but it was afterwards found to be Vefuvius) advanced in height, nor can I give you a more juft reprefentation of it, than the form of a pine tree; for, fpringing up in a direct line, like a tall trunk, the branches were widely diftended. I believe, while the vapour was fresh, it more easily afcended; but when that vapour was wafted, the cloud became loofe; or, perhaps, oppreffed by its own gravity, dilated itself into a greater breadth. It fometimes appeared bright, and fometimes black, or fpotted, according to the quantities of earth and alhes mixed with it. This was a furprifing circumstance, and it deserved, in the opinion of that learned man, to be enquired into more exactly. He commanded a Liburnian galley to be prepared for him, and made me an offer of accompanying him, if I pleased. I replied, it was more agreeable to me to purfue my ftudies; and, as it happened, he had allotted me fomething, at that time, to write. He went out of the house, with his tablets in his hand. The mariners at Retine being under confternation at the approaching danger (for that village was fituated under the mountain, nor were there any means of escaping, but by fea,) entreated him not to venture upon fo hazardous an enterprize. He continued firm to his refolution, and performed, with great fortitude с C 3 Fubet Liburnicam aptari. The word Liburna, or Liburnica, in general fignifies a light veffel; but as the Illyrian form of ships was adopted into the Roman fervice, from the battle of Actium, for the important ufe they were of in that engagement; and, as HORACE has laid fuch particular ftrefs upon them in Ode 37, book 1, and again, in his 1ft Epode, I have chofen to distinguish them by the name of their country. In the edition of PLINY's epiftles by LONGOLIUS, this fentence ftands thus. Vertit ille confilium. It is the fame in the tes timonia ་ tude of mind, what he had at first undertaken from a thirft of knowledge. He commanded the gallies to put off from land, and embarked with a defign not only to relieve the people of Retina, but many others in diftrefs, as the Thore was interspersed with a variety of pleasant villages. He failed immediately to places, which were abandoned by other people, and boldly held his courfe in the face of danger, fo compofed, as to remark diftinctly the appearance and progrefs of this dreadful calamity, and to digeft, and dictate those remarks. He now found, that the ashes beat into the ships much hotter, and in greater quantities; and as he drew nearer, pumice ftones, with black flints, burnt, and torn up by the flames, broke in upon them: and now, the hafty ebb of the fea, and ruins tumbling from the mountain, hindred their nearer approach to the fhore. Paufing a little upon this, whether he fhould not return back, and inftigated to it by the pilot, he cries out, Fortune affifts the brave: let us make the best of our way to POMPONIANUS, who was then at Stabie, and lay oppofite to a bay, into which the fea, creeping gently along that winding coaft, infinuates itself. POMPONIANUS, although not in immediate peril, yet feeing it plainly, and finding it ap proaching faft, was putting his baggage on board fome veffels, with a defign, of making his escape by fea, whenever the contrary wind fhould abate. My uncle arriving with a fair wind at this place, embraced, comforted, and encouraged his trembling friend and to effect this, feemed himself to be under no kind of apprehenfion; but ordering his fervants to carry him to the bath, when he had bathed, went timonia felecta de PLINIO, before the folio edition of PLINY the elder by HARDUINUS. The Variorum edition, and MATTAIRE, exhibit it, non vertit ille confilium, to which fenfe I have adhered. to to fupper, either with a real chearfulness, or, what is equally the fign of a great mind, the appearance of it. In the mean time flames iffued from various parts of mount Vefuvius, and fpreading wide, and towering to a great height, made a vaft blaze, the glare and horror of which were ftill encreased by the gloominefs of the night. My uncle, to remove the general fear, faid, that the blaze was occafioned by the villages being on fire, which were now deferted by the country people. Then retiring to take his reft, he enjoyed a found fleep; for being of a grofs, and corpulent habit of body, he was heard to fnore, by those who waited upon him. The court, beyond which was his apartment, by this time was fo filled with cinders, and pumice ftones, that had he continued any longer in his room, his paffage from it would have been stopped up. Being awakened therefore, he quitted his chamber, and returned to POMPONIANUS, and the reft, whose fears had hindered them from fleeping, and who had been upon the watch. They confulted together, whether it would be more advifeable to keep under the fhelter of that roof, or retire into the fields; for the house tottered to and fro, as if it had been fhaken from the foundation by the frequent earthquakes. On the other hand they dreaded the ftones, which, by being burnt into cinders, although they fell with no great weight, yet fell in large quantities. But after confidering the different hazards, which they run, the advice of going out prevailed: in others, one kind of fear conquered another; in my uncle, one prudential reafon only fucceeded to another. They covered their heads with pillows bound with napkins; this was their only defence against the shower of ftones. And now, when it was day every where elfe, they were furrounded with darkness, |