7 Aristotle does not affirm it as a fact observed by himself, but as a popular tradition (Hist. Anim. v. 19). Pliny is equally cautious (Hist. nat. xxix. 23). Dioscorides declared the thing impossible (ii. 68).-Saisset.
"Sed neque tam facilis res ulla 'st, quin ea primum
Difficilis magis ad credendum constet: itemque
Nil adeo magnum, nec tam mirabile quicquam
Principis, quod non minuant mirarier omnes
Paulatim."
9 Alluded to by Moore in his Melodies:
"The fount that played
In times of old through Ammon's shade,
Though icy cold by day it ran,
Yet still, like souls of mirth, began
To burn when night was near."
11 See the same collocation of words in Cic. Nat. deor. ii. 3.
12 The etymologies given here by Augustin are, "monstra," a monstrando; "ostenta," ab ostendendo; "portenta," a portendendo, i.e. praeostendendo; "prodigia," quod porro dicant, i.e. futura praedicant.
23 "Talio," i.e. the rendering of like for like, the punishment being exactly similar to the injury sustained.
26 Remanerent. But Augustin constantly uses the imp. for the plup. subjunctive.
27 Plato's own theory was that punishment had a twofold purpose, to reform and to deter. "No one punishes an offender on account of the past offense, and simply because he has done wrong, but for the sake of the future, that the offense may not be again committed, either by the same person or by any one who has seen him punished."-See the Protagoras, 324, b, and Grote's Plato, ii. 41.
30 Compare Goldsmith's saying, "We begin life in tears, and every day tells us why."