"The Indian wives strive to be burnt with the corpse of their husbands.">[ The practice of suttee is of great antiquity. See Strabo, xv. 1. § 30. 62.; Val. Max. ii. 6. 14.
"The lads of Sparta, of ancient time, were wont to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so much as queching.">[ To queche here means to squeak.
"Late learners cannot so well take the ply.">[ To take the ply is to bend according to the pressure; to be flexible and docile under instruction.
Essay XL. Of Fortune.—See Antith., No. 11. vol. viii. p. 359.
"Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit draco.">[ What is the origin of this saying?
The character of Cato the elder, cited from Livy, is in xxxix. 40.; but the words are quoted memoriter, and do not agree exactly with the original.
For the anecdote of Timotheus, see "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 493.
Essay XLII. Of Youth and Age.—See Antith., No. 3. vol. viii. p. 355.
"Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceedingly subtle, who afterwards waxed stupid.">[ Hermogenes of Tarsus, who lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, wrote some able rhetorical works while he was still a young man; but at the age of twenty-five fell into a state of mental imbecility, from which he never recovered.
"Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in elect, 'Ultima primis cedebant.'">[ The allusion is to Ovid, Heroid. ix. 23-4.: