"It is right to honour parents even as the gods."-MENAND. apud Stob. LXXIX. "He who reproaches his father, and abuses him, meditates blasphemy against God."--IBID. in comp. Menand. et Phil.

"The young man who does not cherish his mother according to his ability, is as a plant barren from its root."-IBID.

Society and alliances amongst men would be best preserved if the greatest kindness were manifested where there is the nearest relationship."-Cic. de offic. 1. 1. c. 15. "The law says children are either to maintain their parents or to be put in irons." QUINTIL. 1. VII. c. 6.

13. Thou shalt not kill.

The laws of Athens prohibited murder, and made its punishment capital when wilful. Banishment was the penalty of accidental homicide.-See notes on Numbers xxxv.11. "Whosoever shall designedly and unjustly kill with his hand any one soever of his tribes-men, let him in the first place be debarred from legal rights; let him be amenable to anyone who is willing to avenge the dead. Let him who is convicted pay the penalty of death, and let him not be buried in the country of the murdered person.

PLAT. de leg. 1. ix. c. 11. "He who wilfully killed a freeman or even a bondslave, was condemned by the laws of Egypt to suffer death."-DIOD. SIC. l. I. c. 77.

Solon's laws left the person guilty of adultery to the mercy of the injured husband, who, if he spared the lives of the offenders, might serve the man as he pleased, and divorce the woman, reducing her at the same time to the condition of a slave.-See notes on Prov. VI. 34.

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The law enjoins that the duties of a temperate man should be done, such as not to commit adultery."-ARISTOT. Eth. 1. v. c. 1.

"By the laws of Egypt, a man guilty of adultery was to have a thousand lashes; and the woman her nose cut off."-DIOD. SIC. 1. 1. c. 6.

"Alexander, being informed that two Macedonians, named Damon and Timotheus, had corrupted the wives of some of his mercenaries, ordered Parmenio to enquire into the affair; and if they were guilty to put them to death."—PLUT. Alex. c. 22.

"The law justifies a man in killing an adulterer with the adultress."

QUINTIL. 1. VII. c. 1.

"If your wife shall be taken in adultery, you may put her to death with impunity; but if she should detect you in the same offence, she dare not touch you with her finger : this, says M. Cato, is not justice."-AUL. GELL. 1. x. c. 23.

Draco's law made all thefts punishable with death, but Solon's amendment made every petty larceny to be punished with double restitution, and sometimes imprisonment; and every greater robbery, to the value of 50 drachms, with death. See notes on Exodus XXII. 2.

"The deity hates violence, and orders all men to obtain what may be acquired, not through plunder. For the heaven is common to all mortals, and the earth; on which it behoves us, dwelling in our houses, not to have other men's goods, nor to seize them by force."-EURIP. Helen. v. 903.

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

False witnesses were punished at Athens by fines, confiscation of goods, and banishment; they were also degraded, and branded as infamous; according to the law of the Twelve Tables they were to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock.

"Who sins against the right, his wilful tongue

With perjuries of lying witness hung,

Lo! he is hurt beyond the reach of cure ;

Dark is his race, nor shall his name endure."

HES. oper. et dies, v. 280.

"Calumny is a most mischievous vice; where it is indulged, there are always two who offer injury; the calumniator himself is injurious, because he traduces an absent person; he is also injurious who suffers himself to be persuaded without investigating the truth. The person traduced is doubly injured; first by him who propagates, and secondly by him who receives the calumny."-HDT. 1. vII. c. 10.

"A false accuser, my countrymen! is a monster, a dangerous monster, querulous, and industrious in seeking pretence of complaint."-DEMOSTH. de corona.

"Nothing is more injurious than calumny; for it makes one man to suffer by the wickedness of another."-MENAND. apud Stob. XLII.

"The punishment of the bastinade (or beating to death with sticks and stones) is inflicted upon those soldiers of the Romans who steal anything in the camp, and upon those who bear false testimony."-POLYB. 1. VI. extr. 2.

"Among the Indians, a person convicted of bearing false testimony suffers a mutilation of his extremities."-STRAB. 1. XV. c. 1.

"In Egypt, false accusers were to suffer the same punishment which those whom they accused would have undergone if they had been convicted."-DIOD. SIC. 1. I. c. 77.

"Those who commence villainous suits at law upon false testimony, and those who in court upon false oath deny a debt, their names, written down, are returned to Jove. Each day does he learn who here is calling for vengeance."-PLAUT. Rud. prolog.

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Our ancestors ordained that every man should be accounted guilty, if he knowingly swore falsely."-Cic. Academ. 1. IV. c. 47.

The Romans had a law, called the lex Remmia, by which a certain punishment was appointed for calumniators; but it is not known what that punishment was. False accusors were sometimes branded on the forehead with the letter K, the initial of kalumnia, as the word was originally spelt.

"If you act in such a way as to accuse a man of having murdered his father, without being able to say how or why, the judge will affix to your forehead that letter to which you are so hostile that you hate all the Kalends too, in order that henceforth you may be able to accuse no one but your own fortune."-Cic. pro. Sext. Rosc. Amerino, c. 20.

"Do you think, Favorinus, that if that law of the twelve tables against false witnesses had not been repealed, and if now, as formerly, every one convicted of bearing false testimony were cast down from the Tarpeian rock, we should have as many lying witnesses among us as we have ?"-AUL. GELL. 1. xx. c. 1.

17.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

"Glaucus wishing to appropriate to his own use a sum of money which had been entrusted to his care, consulted the oracle whether he could be absolved from returning it. The priestess answered in the negative, upon which Glaucus entreated the deity to forgive him, but the priestess told him that the intention and the action were alike criminal." HDT. 1. VI. c. 86.

"Covet not, Pamphilus,

Even a needlefull of thread, for God,
Who's always near thee, always sees thy deeds."

MENAND. apud Clem. Alex. Strom.

"He is not a just man who does injury to no one, but he who having the power to do injury does it not; nor he who refrains from little thefts, but he who, when he might seize and retain great things without risk, perseveres in his integrity; nor he who merely observes this conduct, but who, being endued with an honest and pure mind, desires not to appear just only but to be just."-PHILEM. frag. apud Stob.

"What belongs to others do not covet."-EPICT. 1. 1. c. 25.

"No man's wife or child, or silver or gold, is to have any charms for you, but your own."-IBID. 1. III. c. 7.

"Thou oughtest not to desire another man's wife."-QUINTIL. 1. VII. c. 1.

"He who meditates within his breast a crime that finds not vent in words, has all the guilt of the act."-Juv. Sat. XIII. v. 209.

EXODUS XXI.

2.

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

In the early ages of the world there were no slaves, and when servitude became common, laws were made for restricting its severity and for liberating, at certain periods, those who were in bonds. Athenæus observes that the Babylonians and Persians, as well as the Greeks, and other nations, celebrated annually a sort of Saturnalia, or feasts instituted most probably in commemoration of the original state of freedom in which man lived before servitude was introduced.

"It is an established law among the Indians that none amongst them should be a servant; but that, every one being free, all should be honoured with equal respect." DIOD. SIC. 1. II. c. 39.

Saturn describing the meaning of the Saturnalia, says—

"I resume the government in order to shew how happily men lived in former times under my sway, when the earth of its own free bounty yielded bread for them without labour. This is the reason why in these few days we see and hear nothing but revelling and singing and playing, and an equality between slaves and freemen; for under my reign there were no servants."-LUCIAN. Saturnal. c. 7.

5. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.

There were many who thought it safer and better in those days to live under the protection of the more powerful, than to trust to their own resources.

"STALINO: Would you prefer to be single and a freeman-or as a married man to pass your life, with your wife and children, in slavery? Whichever condition you prefer,

take it.

"CHALINUS: If I am free, I live at my own cost: at present I live at yours." PLAUT. Casin. Act. II. sc. 4.

6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

"One day, when Cicero was pleading, Octavius, who was an African, said that he could not hear him. That is somewhat strange,' said Cicero, for you have a hole in your ear.'"-PLUT. Cic. c. 26.

"I am a slave; 'tis useless to deny
What these bored ears proclaim to every eye."

14. Thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may

Juv. Sat. 1. v. 104.

die.

The Greeks had their temples, altars, and sacred groves, to which criminals and fugitive slaves might resort for protection. They could not be seized or punished while thus claiming sanctuary; but it was considered lawful to force them from the altar by any means that did not involve personal violence, and this was sometimes done by the application of fire. See notes on 1 Kings, I. 50.

"HERMIONE: Wilt thou quit this sacred enclosure of the Marine goddess ?
ANDROMACHE: Aye, provided I am not to die; else I will never quit it.
HERMIONE:

I will bring fire upon thee."-EURIP. Androm. v. 256.

Cylon and his brother (who had attempted to seize the citadel at Athens) betook themselves as suppliants to the altar in the citadel. The Athenian guard having ordered them to arise as they saw them just ready to expire in the temple, to avoid the guilt of profanation, led them out and slew them; but some of the number, who had seated themselves at the venerable goddesses, at the very altars, they murdered in the act of removal. For this action, not only the persons concerned in it, but their descendants also, were called 'the sacriligious and accursed of the goddess.'"-THUCYD. 1. 1. c. 126.

"Pausanias having taken refuge in a little house within the precincts of the Chalciocan, the Ephori took off the roof and doors of the building: they then immured him within it, and placing a constant guard around him, beset him, that he might perish with hunger. When he was ready to expire, they led him out while yet breathing a little, and immediately afterwards he died."-ÎBID. c. 134.

"Demosthenes having taken sanctuary in the temple of Neptune, at Calauria, Archias endeavoured to persuade him to quit the temple. Demosthenes retired into the inner part of the building, taking his papers as if he intended to write. He put the pen in his mouth, sucking it for a considerable time, till the poison with which it was charged began to take effect. He then desired them to support him, but in attempting to walk from the temple he fell by the altar, and expired with a groan."-PLUT. Demosth. c. 29.

:

TRAN. I'll give you my advice from this spot; my wits are sharper where I'm sitting," &c.-PLAUT. Mostel. Act. v. sc. 1.

Deputations arrived from the Grecian cities, one from the people of Samos, and one from those of Coos, the former requesting that the ancient right of sanctuary in the temple of Juno might be confirmed, the latter to solicit the same for that of Esculapius." TAC. An. 1. IV. c. 14.

15. And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

"BACCHUS: Did you see anywhere in the infernal regions the parricides and the perjured, of whom he told us ?

XANTHIAS: And did not you?

BACCHUS Aye, by Neptune I did."—ARISTOPH. Ran. v. 274.

"Parricides, of which sort of men there is a vast number in Hades."

IBID. V. 773.

Eneas beheld in the infernal regions those who, while on earth, had hated their brethren, lifted their hands against their parents, &c. :

:

"These within the dungeon's depth remain,

Despairing pardon, and expecting pain."-VIRG. En. 1. VI. v. 609. 23. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe,

Triopas having violated the grove of Demeter, for the purpose of building an house in which to feast with his companions, the goddess requited him in kind by sending upon him an insatiable hunger :

:

"Hence, hence, thou dog, and hasten to thy home,
There shape the trees, and roof the lofty dome;
There shalt thou soon unceasing banquets join,
And glut thy soul with feasts and sparkling wine!

Her fatal words imflam'd his impious breast,

He rag'd with hunger like a mountain beast;
Voracious famine his shrunk entrails tore,

Devouring still, and still desiring more."-CALLIM. H. in Cerer. v. 64.

"The rebels were reduced to so great extremity by famine, that they were forced to feed upon each other; as if the Deity had designed to inflict a punishment upon them that might be equal in its horror and impiety to the crimes which they had committed against their fellow-creatures."-POLYB. I. I. c. 6.

According to the laws of Egypt,

"Those who revealed the secrets of the army to the enemy were to have their tongues cut out. They who coined false money, or contrived unfair weights or counterfeited seals; and clerks who forged deeds, or falsified the public records or contracts, were to have both their hands cut off, that everyone might suffer in that part wherein he had offended."-DIOD. SIC. 1. I. c. 78.

"Among the Indians, a person who has maimed another, not only undergoes in return the loss of the same limb, but his hand also is cut off. If he has caused a workman to lose his hand or his eye, he is put to death."-STRAB. 1. xv. c. 1.

"At Eleusis, Theseus engaged in wrestling with Cercyon the Arcadian, and killed him on the spot. Proceeding to Hermione he put a period to the cruelties of Damastes, surnamed Procrustes, making his body fit the size of his own bed, as he had served strangers. These things he did in imitation of Hercules, who always returned upon the agressors the same sort of treatment which they intended for him. For that hero sacrificed Busiris, killed Antæus in wrestling, slew Cygnus in single combat, and broke the skull of Termerus; for Termerus, it seems, destroyed the passengers he met by dashing his head against theirs. Thus, Theseus pursued his travels to punish abandoned wretches who suffered the same kind of death from him that they inflicted upon others, and were requited with vengeance suitable to their crimes."-PLUT. Thes. c. 11.

"These men who carry about, and who listen to accusations, should all be hanged, if I could order it so,—the carriers, by their tongues, the listeners, by their ears." PLAUT. Pseudol. Act. 1. sc. 5.

"Since those laws which relate to pecuniary bribes and canvassing cannot be so well chastised by censuring or by penalties, it is added, let all such abuses be visited with equivalent penalty and punishment, so that every one may be duly punished for his fault; violence being corrected by death, avarice by fines, and ambition by ignominy."

Cic. de leg. 1. III. c. 20.

"If he break a limb, unless he make peace with the sufferer, let the same injury be inflicted upon him."-LEX. XII. TAB. apud GELL. 1. xx. c. 1.

28. If an ox gore a man or woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

"Solon enacted a law for reparation of damages received from beasts. A dog that had bitten a man was to be delivered up, bound to a log of wood four cubits long." PLUT. Solon, c. 24.

35. And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead or also they shall divide.

36. Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.

"If a beast of burden, or a horse, or a dog, or any other animal, injure the property of neighbours, let the owner of the animal pay for the mischief done." PLAT. de leg. 1. xI. c. 14.