the Preface, addressed to the emperor Vespasian, probably the father, to
whom the author pays high compliments. The second book treats of the
world, the elements, and the stars. In respect to the world, or rather
the universe, the author's opinion is the same with that of several
ancient philosophers, that it is a Deity, uncreated, infinite, and
eternal. Their notions, however, as might be expected, on a subject so
incomprehensible, are vague, confused, and imperfect. In a subsequent
chapter of the same book, where the nature of the Deity is more
particularly considered, the author's conceptions of infinite power are
so inadequate, that, by way of consolation for the limited powers of man,
he observes that there are many things even beyond the power of the
Supreme Being; such, for instance, as the annihilation of his own
existence; to which the author adds, the power (477) of rendering mortals
eternal, and of raising the dead. It deserves to be remarked, that,
though a future state of rewards and punishments was maintained by the
most eminent among the ancient philosophers, the resurrection of the body
was a doctrine with which they were wholly unacquainted.

The author next treats of the planets, and the periods of their
respective revolutions; of the stars, comets, winds, thunder, lightning,
and other natural phenomena, concerning all which he delivers the
hypothetical notions maintained by the ancients, and mentions a variety
of extraordinary incidents which had occurred in different parts of the
world. The third book contains a general system of geography, which is
continued through the fourth, fifth, and sixth books. The seventh treats
of conception, and the generation of the human species, with a number of
miscellaneous observations, unconnected with the general subject. The
eighth treats of quadrupeds; the ninth, of aquatic animals; the tenth, of
birds; the eleventh, of insects and reptiles; the twelfth, of trees; the
thirteenth, of ointments, and of trees which grow near the sea-coast; the