the mischief you do me will recoil with | "For my sake yield!" cried Edward, double effect on your own head. If I fall, imploringly. I will pluck you with me."

he is rewarded. Somerset is wrong to
temporize thus. His brother will never
cease plotting. Better crush him now

than let him live to do more mischief."
"I am of your opinion," said Russell.
"This leniency is ill judged."

After the departure of the Lord Protector and the others, the Admiral tarried for a short time with his royal nephew, and while he was taking his leave, Edward said to him,

"We have both gained something by this struggle, gentle uncle. I have ob

tained my liberty, and you have got a thousand a year added to your revenue. You can not be governor of our person, but you will ever hold the first place in our regard."

"That is all I aspire to, my gracious liege," rejoined the Admiral, kissing his hand. And he added to himself as he retired: "Somerset thinks to conciliate me with this paltry bribe. Were he to offer me half his own revenues, he should not induce me to forego my purpose."

left his solitude, and proclaimed, in the Judæan wilderness, a coming Saviour. The Redeemer abode at Nazareth, still subject to his reputed parents, and growing in favor with God and man.

DURING one of those lulls in the Roman | were to elapse before John the Baptist world which resemble the calm preceding the earthquake, an Italian matron of high rank gave birth to a son. The convulsions attending the overthrow of the Republic had in some measure subsided, and Tiberius, for nine hopeful years, had occupied the new throne of the Cæsars. But he had just changed his hitherto beneficent system, and, under the influence of Sejanus, begun his career of crime and lust. Caligula, then an orphan in the hands of the Emperor, had already shown signs of the madness that culminated on the imperial throne. Seneca, also a youth, had started on the tour of the East, then deemed essential to a polite education. Strabo was deeply engaged with the geographical researches published at a later day. St. Paul was still a boy, pursuing his youthful studies. Seven more years

Verona and Como have each something on which to base a claim to being the birthplace of that young Roman; but whether he first saw the light on the shore of the sunny lake, or on the banks of the Adige, matters little. Tradition and local names point to Como, the birthplace of his favorite nephew, Pliny the Younger. On the other hand, he terms the spendthrift poet Catullus his conterraneus, or

countryman ;" and on this the Veronese mainly rest their claim, since the roystering poet was undoubtedly one of themselves.

A long interval has now to be bridged over before we again meet with certain traces of the young Roman as Caius Plinius Secundus. How or where his boyhood was spent is not recorded; but at an early age he was at Rome, studying under the credulous Egyptian Apion, the opponent of Philo and Josephus, whose Vain boastings led Caligula to term him, cymbalum mundi, "the cymbal of the universe," and whom his distinguished pupil has further immortalized as publica

fama tympanum, "the kettle drum of | to him as the defender of their rights and fame." It is most probable that the con- privileges, (patronus,) such an advocacy test was raging between Philo and Apion during the time of Pliny's pupilage. The illustrious Jew was fighting for the faith and lives of himself and his Egyptian coreligionists, whilst his opponent was animated by hatred, and guilty of most bitter injustice to his countrymen. A contest into which so much feeling entered must often have brought Judaism before the young Roman under an unfavorable light; hence his reference to the Jews at a later day as gens contumeliâ numinum insignis "a race conspicuous for their insolence toward the gods" of Rome.

being feudal rather than professional. In time, the wealthier clients began to present to their successful advocates such gifts not partaking of the nature of a fee, but being grateful recognitions of good services. As society advanced toward civilization, some of these patrons became professional advocates, as in the case of Cicero; but the same mode of payment continued to prevail, as it does even now at the English bar, where the fee is not a debt that can be recovered, but an honorarium paid beforehand.*

During the greater part of the reign of Nero, Pliny appears to have been without official employment. Some of his time was probably spent in Como, educating his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters now form so valuable an element of classic literature. Meanwhile, stirring events were taking place in the world. Caractacus having been overthrown and led captive to Rome, Boadicea continued to fight, and was still struggling to free her country from the Roman invaders. St. Mark and St. Luke were now writing their respective Gospels; St. Paul, ap

We next find Pliny, at the age of twenty-two, on the coast of Africa; and still later, in accordance with a universal custom amongst the Roman nobility, he appears in the army, serving under Pompinus in a cavalry regiment in Germany. There he wrote a treatise on the Art of Throwing the Javelin on Horseback; but about A.D. 52, we find him once more at Rome. During the twenty-eight years at which we have briefly glanced, what momentous events took place! The Baptist accomplished his preparatory mission, and was gone to his reward. The Re-pealing to Cæsar, had reached Rome, and deemer entered upon his brief ministry, submitted to the shame of the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended on high. The proto-martyr fell beneath the missiles of a Jewish mob; St. Paul journeyed to Damascus, saw the heavenly light, and

was

he and St. Peter were soon to attain the martyr's crown. The imperial city was destroyed by the conflagration which, falsely attributed to the Christians, led to their first persecution at the metropolis. Seneca, victim of Nero's ingratitude, drained the fatal cup; and Arria, the he roic wife of Pætus, taught her husband how she thought a Roman ought to die.

now serving his once persecuted Lord; whilst St. Matthew gave to the world the first of the Gospels destined to be the foundations and pillars of our faith. Toward the close of Nero's reign, we Pliny appears to have returned to Rome find Pliny a Procurator in Spain. Protoward the close of the reign of Claudius, curatorships were offices created by the when he entered the college of augurs, to Cæsars. Sometimes procurators were gov which was committed the interpretation ernors of provinces; at others they only of the omens recognized by the soothsay-managed the fiscal affairs on behalf of the ers, as well as the guardianship of the na- central government. How long our subtional calendar. He also made his appearance in the forum as a pleader of causes. Oratory long constituted one of the chief Even in the time of Trajan, Nepos the studies of the Roman youth, both under Prætor endeavored to enforce the following decree of the Senate: "All persons whosoever that have the Republic and the Empire; so that, as any lawsuits pending, are hereby required and comwas the case with Julius Cæsar, successful manded, before any proceedings be had thereon, to soldiers were prepared to enter the foren- take an oath that they have not given, promised, or sic lists on leaving the camp. The origin engaged to give, any fee or reward to any advocate, of what we now term "forensic oratory," upon account of his undertaking their cause." so far as Rome was concerned, was a cu-withstanding, the advocate was allowed by the law to receive a gratuity of ten thousand sesterces, or In the first instance, each of about eighty pounds, after the cause was decided. the wealthy and powerful was surrounded See the letter of Pliny the Younger to Rufus, by a circle of dependents, who looked up

rious one.

*The pre-payment was an abuse of the custom at Rome.

book v.

Not

ject occupied this post is uncertain; but | canic disturbances, but even tradition prehe was in Spain during the disturbed served no record of their having affected period when the death of Nero, follow- the far-famed mountain. Its fires had lain ed in quick succession by those of Galba, dormant. The great volcanic vent through Otho, and Vitellius, opened the way for which the pent-up forces of the district Vespasian, whose ascent to the throne escaped had hitherto been the island once more gave 'the distracted Empire of Ischia, from which successive colonies promise of repose. The voluptuous prodi- were driven by the violence of the erupgality of the nobles, imperfectly expiated tions. At this period, Plutarch tells us, the during the Marian wars, steadily increas- interior of the crater of Vesuvius was a ing after Sulla's victory, had now risen to plain, surrounded by slopes clothed with a fearful hight, and was a canker-worm wild vines; whilst richly fertile fields coveating into the heart of society. Ves- ered the mountain sides, and Herculaneum pasian gave this a check-controlling the and Pompeii nestled at its base. No dream waste of the public finances, whilst he of peril disturbed the luxurious multiadorned Rome with such noble build- tudes who dwelt within those frescoed ings as the Colosseum and the Temple of mansions. Their sense of safety was first Peace. Pliny, already the friend of Titus, disturbed in A.D. 63, when an earthquake the son and successor of Vespasian, re- shook the mountain, and did considerable turned to Rome during the progress of mischief. Other shocks occurred between these changes, and, of course, found the that date and the fatal year A.D. 79, when state of affairs favorable to his own ad- the final catastrophe took place. We vancement. He now enjoyed the honors have already observed that the younger of courtly life, and basked in the sunshine Pliny was an eye-witness of the event, and of royal favor; but this did not interfere he has recorded many of the circumwith his literary industry, since he wrote stances attending it in two letters to Tacia History of his own Times, beginning, tus the historian. His description is in one sense very defective, since he omits many very important facts-for example, the destruction of the two cities. We must remember, however, that the main object of the letter was to give the historian an account of his uncle's death. But many of the omitted facts were sup

as he informs us in the dedication of his Natural History to Titus, where Aufidius Bassus ended. Both these works are lost. It was also at this time that he completed his Natural History, which, happily, we still possess, and upon which his fame as a writer chiefly rests.

later period by Dion Cassius. We have not quoted the letters in question, but would strongly urge them upon the attention of our readers as marvelous examples of word-painting. Though Melmoth's flowery translation of them does not faithfully render Pliny's style, it will be found sufficient for the purpose we have indicated.

We next meet with him under circum-plied by Tacitus and Martial, and at a stances of tragical interest. He had been appointed to the command of that portion of the Roman fleet that protected the Western Mediterranean. Vespasian was dead, and Titus, his old fellow-soldier, had ascended the throne. In August, A.D. 79, he was stationed near the modern Naples, having with him his sister Plinia, and her son, Pliny the Younger, then a youth eighteen years old, when they witnessed the fearful eruption of Vesuvius by which Herculaneum and Pompeii were whelmed. The Campanians living in these regions had long been familiar with vol

*

over

*The exact locality, as tradition has it, was about eight miles west of Naples, near Puteoli, where Paul landed, and where the Roman fleet lay in full view of Vesuvius, fifteen miles distant across the Bay of Naples. Pliny, then Admiral, manned a number of boats with a strong force, which rowed him across the bay to the shore near Pompeii, where he landed and lying down to rest, was suffocated by the smoke and fumes from the volcanic fires of Vesuvius, as history tells, on the spot which we examined.-ED.

OF THE ECLECTIC.

Before attempting to review Pliny's intellectual character or the great work by which he is so well known, we may glance at some peculiarities of the age and people with which he was connected; because these will explain much that renders him one of the most remarkable and yet one of the most disappointing men of his time.

While the Roman people grew slowly in numbers and influence, they were a religiously earnest and believing race. Their religion, whatever its origin, displayed much grace and beauty, and was calcu lated to promote a trusting and reveren