NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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NOTE XXI. Sect. II. p. ;6.

Pliny, lib. ix. c. ;Principium ergo culmenqueomnium rerum prætii Margaritæ tenent. In lib. xxxvii.c. 4. he affirms, Maximum in rebus humanis prætium, nonsoium inter gemmas, habet Adamas. These two passagesstand in such direct contradiction to one another, that itis impossible to reconcile them, or to determine which ismost conformable to truth.. I have adhered to the former,because we have many instances of the exorbitant price ofpearls, but none, as far as I know, of diamonds havingbeen purchased at a rate so high. In this opinion I amconfirmed by a passage in Pliny, lib. xix. c. l. ; havingmentioned the exorbitant price of Asbestos , he fays ,c ‘ sequat prætia excellentium Margaritarum ; ” whichimplies, that he considered them to be of higher price thanany other commodity.

NOTE XXII. Sect. II. p.

Plitsy has devoted two entire books of his Natural.History, lib. xii. and xiii. to the enumeration and descriptionof the spices , aromatics , ointments, and perfumes , the useof which luxury had introduced among his countrymen.As many of these were the productions of India , or ofthe countries beyond it, and as the trade with the Eastwas carried on to a great extent in the age of Pliny, wemay form some idea of the immense demand for them ,from the high price at which they continued to be sold inRome. To compare the prices of the fame commoditiesin ancient Rome , with those now paid in our own country,is not a gratification of cuutility merely, but affords astandard by which we may estimate the different degree ofsuccess with which the Indian trade has been conductedin ancient and modern rimes. Many remarkable passage