Pliny the Elder.—­I died in doing my duty.  Let me recall to your remembrance all the particulars, and then you shall judge yourself on the difference of your behaviour and mine.  I was the Prefect of the Roman fleet, which then lay at Misenum.  On the first account I received of the very unusual cloud that appeared in the air I ordered a vessel to carry me out to some distance from the shore that I might the better observe the phenomenon, and endeavour to discover its nature and cause.  This I did as a philosopher, and it was a curiosity proper and natural to an inquisitive mind.  I offered to take you with me, and surely you should have gone; for Livy might have been read at any other time, and such spectacles are not frequent.  When I came out from my house, I found all the inhabitants of Misenum flying to the sea.  That I might assist them, and all others who dwelt on the coast, I immediately commanded the whole fleet to put out, and sailed with it all round the Bay of Naples, steering particularly to those parts of the shore where the danger was greatest, and from whence the affrighted people were endeavouring to escape with the most trepidation.  Thus I happily preserved some thousands of lives, noting at the same time, with an unshaken composure and freedom of mind, the several phenomena of the eruption.  Towards night, as we approached to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, our galleys were covered with ashes, the showers of which grew continually hotter and hotter; then pumice stones and burnt and broken pyrites began to fall on our heads, and we were stopped by the obstacles which the ruins of the volcano had suddenly formed, by falling into the sea and almost filling it up, on that part of the coast.  I then commanded my pilot to steer to the villa of my friend Pomponianus, which, you know, was situated in the inmost recess of the bay.  The wind was very favourable to carry me thither, but would not allow him to put off from the shore, as he was desirous to have done.  We were, therefore, constrained to pass the night in his house.  The family watched, and I slept till the heaps of pumice stones, which incessantly fell from the clouds that had by this time been impelled to that side of the bay, rose so high in the area of the apartment I lay in, that if I had stayed any longer I could not have got out; and the earthquakes were so violent as to threaten every moment the fall of the house.  We, therefore, thought it more safe to go into the open air, guarding our heads as well as we were able with pillows tied upon them.  The wind continuing contrary, and the sea very rough, we all remained on the shore, till the descent of a sulphurous and fiery vapour suddenly oppressed my weak lungs and put an end to my life.  In all this I hope that I acted as the duty of my station required, and with true magnanimity.  But on this occasion, and in many other parts of your conduct, I must say, my dear nephew, there was a mixture of