erness instructs infantile lispings of French, German, or English. Prudent fathers inclined to private instruction. The elder Cato gave lessons to his son, although he had a Greek grammarian as tutor. There being no royal road to learning, Pliny was doubtless first trained by the slave litterator in reading, writing, and arithmetic, imparted in two ways, by signs with the fingers, or a counting-table and stones, the abacus and calculi, those equivalents of slates and blackboards. Geography, mythology, and critical readings of Homer, Terence, Virgil, and Horace with the grammarian followed, with the ultimate aim of gaining distinction in the lecture room, and rhetoric. Nor were games and martial exercises forgotten, although he is described as of a fragile constitution. The long robe of childhood was exchanged for the toga virilis, the citizen's dress, at the age of fourteen or sixteen, with the deposit of money in the temple of Juventas. Public speaking, the much prized forensic eloquence, was next studied. He had for preceptor the wise and polished Quintilian. He also cherished

much esteem for another instructor in the philosopher Eucrates, found by Pliny in the depths of Syria, where he was serving as a soldier. Eucrates, a disciple of Plato, subtle in dispute, making a war on vice, inspired in discourse, reconciled Pliny to philosophy, and the just discernment of pleasure and duty. Pliny recalled the lessons of this sage of austere visage and long hair and beard all his life.

The youth departed from his home in the suburb of Como to enter the world. His tutor, Aristones, had been zealous and prudent. Instructed in oratory, Pliny entered the arena modestly in a criminal case, as was the custom. Eloquence is composed of three elements, according to Quintilian, to read, write, and speak well. Thus Pliny declaimed in public, wrote dialogues, poems, and pages of history. As a young man he composed little verses of society, in the fashion of the time, as a recreation from serious labours. Spurrina was to him an edifying example of well-regulated age, rising early to the routine of a day of gentle exercise,

study, the bath, playing a game of tennis, and fed at a frugal board spread with massive silver utensils, and the brass of Corinth. When Pliny appeared on the public piazza, in a white robe, may he not have saluted the lowest plebeian, soliciting his vote for office, and often buying it with money? The politeness of the Prætor, Mancinus, in explaining to the people in the Forum some pictures exhibited, for which they made him consul the next year, would have been a natural trait of amiability in Pliny the Younger. He seems to have been sent to Athens for further culture. His lines were cast in pleasant places throughout his career. He did not need to complain, with Martial, of being invited to sup with the rich Mancinus, when a sucking pig was divided among sixty hungry guests, while the host ate grapes, apples as sweet as honey, pomegranates of Carthage, and olives of Picenum.

In public life the place in history of Pliny is at the base of the column of Trajan. Both gain by such propinquity, and their memory has been cherished by succeeding centuries; so long do

the good deeds of men live after them. Trajan, born in Spain, has been considered the first provincial to gain the rank of emperor. He was less exclusively Roman than his predecessors. He built monuments of his own greatness in all parts of the known universe. An arch of Trajan stands at Benevento, and another at Ancona. He constructed a bridge of twenty arches on the Rhine, and a rampart above the Danube. He aspired to becoming a ruler not only of the Romans, but of the entire human race. In his military career he defeated Decebalus, and made Dacia a Roman province, took Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, and descended the Tigris to the Persian Gulf. One of the greatest and best of emperors, he is praised for his moderation, simplicity of living, and excellent judgment. He presided at the tribunal which condemned Saint Ignatius. Ampère compares Trajan to Washington, as a Roman general instead of a Virginia planter, yet both inspired by the same sentiment of duty in defending the frontiers of country against an enemy. Trajan, with his firm

mien, would have marched as far as India, if necessary, and Washington, the friend of peace, threatened by England during his presidency, prepared to hold head modestly with the foe.

Pliny practised law at Rome, held public offices, and became Proconsul of Bithynia in 103. He wrote the famous letter to Trajan in which he bore testimony to the morality of the Christians. Pliny consulted the emperor in all matters of difficulty, and even of the small interests of towns in Asia. The replies of Trajan were models of good sense and brevity, gravity, and the conciseness known as imperatoria brevitas, whether a decision on the building of a new bath by the inhabitants of Prusium, or giving the citizens of Amasia permission to cover a stagnant stream. What was the actual opinion of tolerant master and minister of the sect of Christians? Pliny does not seem to have been especially interested in their tenets, although he was humane in disposition towards an inoffensive body. Trajan, with his principles of Roman distrust of individual liberty, independent associations, civil