Having now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be as well to take a sort of comparative view of her several productions, as well as the countries which supply them. Throughout the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of heaven extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which, for the productions of Nature, merits so high a rank as Italy, that ruler and second parent of the world; recommended as she is by her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves, her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of genius which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally in her favour; the salubrity and mildness of her climate; the easy access which she offers to all nations; her coasts indented with so many harbours; the propitious breezes, too, that always prevail on her shores; advantages, all of them, due to her situation, lying, as she does, midway between the East and the West, and extended in the most favourable of all positions. Add to this, the abundant supply of her waters, the salubrity of her groves, the repeated intersections of her mountain ranges, the comparative innocuousness of her wild animals, the fertility of her soil, and the singular richness of her pastures.

Whatever there is that the life of man ought not to feel in want of, is nowhere to be found in greater perfection than here; the cereals, for example, wine, oil, wool, flax, tissues, and oxen. As to horses, there are none, I find, preferred to those of Italy for the course;3475 while, for mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron, so long as it was deemed lawful to work them,3476 Italy was held inferior to no country whatsoever. At the present day, teeming as she is with these treasures, she contents herself with lavishing upon us, as the whole of her bounties, her various liquids, and the numerous flavours yielded by her cereals and her fruits. Next to Italy, if we except the fabulous regions of India, I would rank Spain, for my own part, those districts, at least, that lie in the vicinity of the sea.3477 She is parched and sterile in one part, it is true; but where she is at all productive, she yields the cereals in abundance, oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind. In all these respects, Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on the other hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartum3478 and her specular stone,3479 the products of her desert tracts, in her pigments that minister to our luxuries, in the ardour displayed by her people in laborious employments, in the perfect training of her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in their general resoluteness of character.

As to the productions themselves, the greatest value of all, among the products of the sea, is attached to pearls: of objects that lie upon the surface of the earth, it is crystals that are most highly esteemed: and of those derived from the interior, adamas,3480 smaragdus,3481 precious stones, and murrhine,3482 are the things upon which the highest value is placed. The most costly things that are matured by the earth, are the kermes-berry3483 and laser;3484 that are gathered from trees, nard3485 and Seric tissues;3486 that are derived from the trunks of trees, logs of citrus3487-wood; that are produced by shrubs, cinnamon,3488 cassia,3489 and amomum;3490 that are yielded by the juices of trees or of shrubs, amber,3491 opobalsamum,3492 myrrh,3493 and frankincense;3494 that are found in the roots of trees, the perfumes derived from costus.3495 The most valuable products furnished by living animals, on land, are the teeth of elephants; by animals in the sea, tortoise-shell; by the coverings of animals, the skins which the Seres3496 dye, and the substance gathered from the hair of the she-goats of Arabia, which we have spoken of under the name of “ladanum;”3497 by creatures that are common to both land and sea, the purple3498 of the murex. With reference to the birds, beyond plumes for warriors’ helmets, and the grease that is derived from the geese of Commagene,3499 I find no remarkable product mentioned. We must not omit, too, to observe, that gold, for which there is such a mania with all mankind, hardly holds the tenth rank as an object of value, and silver, with which we purchase gold, hardly the twentieth!

Hail to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do thou deign to show thy favour unto me, who, alone of all the citizens of Rome, have, in thy every department,3500 thus made known thy praise.3501

Summary.—Facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand three hundred.

Roman Authors quoted.—M. Varro,3502 the Register of the Triumphs,3503 Mæcenas,3504 Iacchus,3505 Cornelius Bocchus.3506

Foreign Authors quoted.—King Juba,3507 Xenocrates3508 the son of Zeno, Sudines,3509 Æschylus,3510 Philoxenus,3511 Euripides,3512 Nicander,3513 Satyrus,3514 Theophrastus,3515 Chares,3516 Philemon,3517 Demostratus,3518 Zenothemis,3519 Metrodorus,3520 Sotacus,3521 Pytheas,3522 Timæus3523 the Sicilian, Nicias,3524 Theochrestus,3525 Asarubas,3526 Mnaseas,3527 Theomenes,3528 Ctesias,3529 Mithridates,3530 Sophocles,3531 King Archelaüs,3532 Callistratus,3533 Democritus,3534 Ismenias,3535 Olympicus,3536 Alexander3537 Polyhistor, Apion,3538 Horus,3539 Zoroaster,3540 Zachalias.3541