Produced by Turgut Dincer, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: VIEW OF NAPLES AND MT. VESUVIUS.] THE BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ PLINY BEING PARTS OF PLINY’S “NATURAL HISTORY” EDITED FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN S. WHITE, LL.D. HEAD-MASTER BERKELEY SCHOOL EDITOR OF “THE BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ PLUTARCH” AND “THE BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ HERODOTUS” WITH FIFTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK AND LONDON G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS _The Knickerbocker Press_ COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 1885 CONTENTS. _BOOK I._ DEDICATION. CHAP. PAGE Caius Plinius Secundus to his Friend Titus Vespasian 1 _BOOK II._ AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS. I. The Character and Form of the World 9 II. Of God 12 III. The Dimensions of the World 15 IV. Of the Stars which appear suddenly, or of Comets 16 V. The Doctrine of Hipparchus about the Stars 17 VI. Of the Stars which are Named Castor and Pollux 18 VII. Of Thunder and Lightning 19 VIII. Nature of the Earth 20 IX. Italy 25 X. The Hyperboreans 27 XI. Britannia 29 XII. Mount Atlas 30 XIII. The Island of Taprobana 31 _BOOK III._ MAN, HIS BIRTH AND HIS ORGANIZATION. I. Man 37 II. The Wonderful Forms of Different Nations 40 III. Instances of Extraordinary Strength 49 IV. Instances of Remarkable Agility and Acuteness of Sight 50 V. Vigor of Mind, and Courage 51 VI. Men of Remarkable Genius and Wisdom 57 _BOOK IV._