| John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| NUMBER: | 8724 |
| AUTHOR: | Pliny the Elder (A.D. c. 23–A.D. 79) |
| QUOTATION: | Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 2. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| | Note 1.
He is born naked, and falls a whining at the first.—Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, mem. 3, subsect. 10.
And when I was born I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do.—The Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 3.
It was the custom among the ancients to place the new-born child upon the ground immediately after its birth. [back] |
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