show. He is describing the death of that ardent admirer of Virgil, Silius Italicus, the last survivor of all those who, during the reign of Nero, had been raised to the consular office; and adds, in allusion to this proof of rapid mortality,

، Quod me recordantem fragilitatis humanae miseratio subit. Quid enim tam circumcisum, tam breve, quam hominis vita longissima? Annon videtur tibi Nero modo fuisse, cum interim ex his, qui sub illo gesserant consulatum, nemo jam superest? Quanquam quid hoc miror? nuper Lucius Piso, pater Pisonis illius, qui a Valerio Festo per summum facinus Africa occisus est, dicere solebat, neminem se videre in senatu, quem COS. ipse sententiam rogavisset,' tam angustis terminis tantæ multitudinis vivacitas ipsa concluditur, ut mihi non venia solum dignæ, verum etiam laudæ, videantur illæ regiæ lacrymæ. Nam ferunt Xerxem, cum immensum exercitum oculis obiisset, illacrymasse, quod tot millibus tam brevis immineret occasus. Sed tanto magis hoc, quicquid est temporis futilis et caduci, si non datur factis (nam horum materia in aliena manu), nos certe studiis proferamus: et quatenus nobis denegatur diu vivere, relinquamus aliquid, quo nos vixisse testemur. Scio te stimulis non egere;

me tamen tui caritas evocat, ut currentem quoque

instigem, sicut tu soles me.

Ayat d'epis, cum invicem se mutuis exhortationibus amici ad amorem immortalitatis exacuunt.

Vale*"

"When I consider this circumstance, I cannot forbear lamenting the transitory condition of mankind. Is there any thing in nature so short and limited as human life, even in its most extended period? Does it not seem to you, my friend, but yesterday, that Nero was upon the throne? and yet not one of all those who were consuls in his reign now remains! But why should I wonder at an event so common? Lucius Piso, the father of that Piso who was infamously assassinated by Valerius Festus, in Africa, used to say, he did not see one person in the senate who sat in that house when he was consul: such multitudes are swept away in so short a space! I am, therefore, so far from thinking those tears of Xerxes need any apology, that in my judgment history does honour to his character, which informs us, that when this prince had attentively surveyed his immense army, he could not forbear weeping, from the reflection that so many thousand lives would so soon be extinct. The

* Lib. iii. Epist. 7.

more ardent therefore should our endeavours be to lengthen out this short portion of existence, by acquisitions of glory, if not in the active scenes of life (which is not always in our own power), yet, however, in those of literary occupations; and since it is not granted us to live long, let us transmit to posterity some memorial that we have at least lived. I well know you want not any incitement; but the warmth of my affection inclines me to forward you in the course you already pursue; as I have often found myself encouraged in mine by your generous exhortations. How glorious is the contention, when two friends thus strive who shall animate each other most in their pursuits of immortal fame! Farewell."

To live in the esteem and admiration of posterity is, without all doubt, a consummation devoutly to be wished; for it is a result which necessarily implies in him who has attained it virtue and talent of no ordinary kind. The desire, in fact, of protracting the footsteps of our existence beyond the very brief period to which, in the common course of nature, our being on this earthly stage is limited, seems implanted, in a greater or less degree, in every human breast; and, as far as such desire is connected with the ambition of being good as well

as great, merits every possible encouragement. The impulse, however, like every other associated with the free agency of man, is liable to abuse, and it has too often happened, that he who has been unable or unwilling to build his immortality on the gratitude of mankind, has not hesitated to found it on the execration due to splendid crime and desolating power.

Of the various modes to which human ingenuity has had recourse for the perpetuation of a name, no one, either in durability or utility, can rival that which is based on literary eminence. Of empires once wide in their extent, and renowned for wealth and power, scarcely a vestige, save what their literature has préserved, remains behind; nay, the very monuments of gigantic bulk and strength, on which their founders had engraven, as they fondly thought, a record for eternity, have either sank into the dust of which they were composed, or stand nameless and unappropriated, the sepulchres of baffled pride and disappointed ambition. There is also this immense advantage, almost certainly accompanying an immortality founded on intellectual superiority, that it can travel to posterity only for good; for though innumerable productions of a per

nicious tendency have, in all ages and countries, issued from the pen or press, and for a season have caused extensive mischief, yet has no work decidedly and absolutely immoral, whatever may have been the talent exhibited in its construction, ever reached a distant age. The general sense and well-being of mankind have uniformly interposed to arrest its career, and though buoyed up for a time, perhaps, by intrinsic genius, or extrinsic circumstances, it has, in a century or two at farthest, dropped into deserved oblivion.

No one, perhaps, was ever more avowedly anxious for a perpetuity of fame, resulting from intellectual pursuits, than the younger Pliny; and, amongst the writers of ancient Rome, no one was ever, on the plea of moral tendency, in his life and writings, better entitled to what he wished for. We have already seen pictured in his own emphatic language the almost impassioned enthusiasm of the man in favour of study and literary composition; and in a letter to his friend, Capito, he thus undisguisedly declares the wishes of his heart:

"Suades, ut historiam scribam, et suades non solus: multi hoc me sæpe monuerunt, et ego volo: non quia commode facturum esse confidam (id enim