Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/593

Rh having produced a single scientist. Pliny is the only Roman who has the slightest claim to this designation. Yet his "Natural History" is such a vast collection of absurdities that one wonders how an avowed atheist could think it worth while to record them. He cites nearly five hundred writers as his authorities, and it is known that he was an indefatigable reader. But he had time neither to think nor to observe. He was conscientious in the performance of every duty incumbent upon him, and thought he was doing posterity a great service in the compilation of his work. He was skeptical in everything that came under his own observation, and credulous of the testimony of others. He was a predecessor of Faust who at one period of his career congratulated himself that he knew more than everybody else, was haunted by neither doubts nor scruples, feared neither hell nor the devil, hence had given himself over to magic. It is unscientific to call anything that happens or is, "strange"; yet one is often tempted to apply the epithet to that characteristic of man that makes him averse to the truth when it is disagreeable or conflicts with preconceived opinions. Opinions and beliefs can not change the most insignificant fact. It is only the truth whether in science or history that abides.