epistles he tells two excellent ghost stories. But
the two letters which are most vital in their human
interest, and which record the most thrilling events, are
the two addressed to his friend, the historian Tacitus,
concerning the great eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, A.D.
79. Pliny was only seventeen years of age when he witnessed
this eruption, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, and
in which his uncle, the elder Pliny, author of the
celebrated natural history, perished.

Until the year 79 Vesuvius was not suspected of being a
volcano. The mountain was covered with vegetation, and the
ancient crater was like a circular bowl scooped from the
summit. Then came the explosion which buried Pompeii and
Herculaneum. Never since has the volcano long remained
quiet. The most serious eruptions have been those of 203,
472, 512, 685, 983, 1066, 1631, 1779, 1794, 1822, 1855,
1865, 1872, 1878, 1880, 1895, and 1906.

Pliny's descriptions of the scenes on the slopes of the
vengeful volcano--the raining ashes; the fleeing, terrified
crowds--are as fresh and vivid to-day as those Roman
frescoes which it has been the good fortune of the modern
archeologist to uncover after two thousand years of burial
beneath the Vesuvian scoriae.

Letter No. 1.

Your request that I would send you an account of my uncle's death, in
order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my
acknowledgments, for if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen the
glory of it, I am well assured, will be rendered forever illustrious. And
notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune which, as it involved at the
same time a most beautiful country in ruins, and destroyed so many
populous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remembrance;
notwithstanding he has himself composed many and lasting works, yet I am
persuaded the mentioning of him in your immortal writings will greatly
contribute to render his name immortal.

Happy I esteem those to be to whom by the provision of the gods has been
granted the ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being
related or to relate them in a manner worthy of being read; but peculiarly
happy are they who are blessed with both these uncommon talents, in the
number of which my uncle, as his own writings and your history will
evidently prove, may justly be ranked.

It is with extreme willing