senate. Pliny, on the
other hand, says to his friend Tacitus, there is something in the
solemnity of venerable woods, and the awful silence which prevails in
those places, that strongly disposes us to study and contemplation.
For the future, therefore, whenever you hunt, take along with you your
pen and paper, as well as your basket and bottle; for you will find
the mountains not more inhabited by Diana, than by Minerva. _Jam
undique sylvae, et solitudo, ipsumque illud silentium, quod venationi
datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt. Proinde, cum, venabere,
licebit, auctore me, ut panarium et lagunculam, sic etiam pugillares
feras. Experiaris non Dianam magis montibus quam Minervam inerrare._
Lib. i. epist. 6. Between these two different opinions, a true poet
may be allowed to decide. Horace describes the noise and tumult of a
city life, and then says,

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes.
Epist. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 77.

Alas! to grottos and to groves we run,
To ease and silence, ev'ry muse's son.
POPE.

[b] The expression in the original is full and expressive, _lucrosae
hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiae_; that gainful and blood-thirsty
eloquence. The immoderate wealth acquired by Eprius Marcellus has been
mentioned in this Dialogue, section 8. Pliny gives us an idea of the
vast acquisitions gained by Regulus, the notorious informer. From a
state of indigence, he rose, by a train of villainous actions, to such
immense riches, that he once consulted the omens, to know how soon he
should be worth sixty millions of sesterces, and found them so
favourable, that he had no doubt of being worth double that sum.
_Aspice Regulum, qui ex paupere et tenui ad tantas opes per flagitia
processit, ut ipse mihi dixerit, cum consuleret, quam cito sestertium
sexcennies impleturus esset, invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus
portendi millies et ducenties habiturum._ Lib. ii. ep. 20. In another
epistle the same author relates, that Regulus, having lost his son,
was visited upon that occasion by multitudes of people, who all in
secret detested him, yet paid their court with as much assiduity as if
they esteemed and loved him. They retaliated upon this man his own
insidious arts: to gain the friendship of Regulus, they played the
game of Regulus himself. He, in the mean time, dwells in his villa on
the other side of the Tiber, where he has co