The text of the Roman laws was written in red letters, which was called the Rubric; translated here, in more general words, "The letter of the law."
Note XVII.
Virtue and vice are never in one soul;
A man is wholly wise, or wholly is a fool.—P. [257].
The Stoics held this paradox, that any one vice, or notorious folly, which they called madness, hindered a man from being virtuous; that a man was of a piece, without a mixture, either wholly vicious, or good; one virtue or vice, according to them, including all the rest.
Note XVIII.
----Him that freed thee by the prætor's wand.—P. [258].
The prætor held a wand in his hand, with which he softly struck the slave on the head, when he declared him free.
Note XIX.
----Says Phædria to his man.—P. [259].
This alludes to the play of Terence, called "The Eunuch;" which was excellently imitated of late in English, by Sir Charles Sedley.[254] In the first scene of that comedy, Phædria was introduced with his man, Pamphilus, discoursing, whether he should leave his mistress Thais, or return to her, now that she had invited him.