[16] 'L'agreable conference de Piarot et Janin.' Paris, 1651. [17] "[Greek: SO] Ne ton kuna, amphignoo mentoi o Pole]" &c.--'_Gorgias._' [18] "On Tuesday, March 31, he and I dined at General Paoli's.... We talked of the strange custom of swearing in conversation. The general said that all barbarous nations swore from a certain violence of temper that could not be confined to earth, but was always reaching at the powers above. He said, too, that there was a greater variety of swearing in proportion as there was a greater variety of religious ceremonies."--Boswell's '_Life of Johnson_,' p. 235. [19] Letter from Lynceus at Rhodes to Diagoras at Athens, in 'Journal des Savants,' 1839, p. 37. [20] Aldus Gellius, xi. 6. We find these oaths so distributed in Terence and Plautus, the women swearing by Castor and the men by Hercules. [21] Herodotus, bk. iv. 67. It was the _hearth_ of kings of Scythia that was dealt with in this way. [22] For an able article on the Five Wounds as represented in Art, see Journal of Brit. Arch. Association for Dec. 1874, by the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson. [23] 'Roba di Roma,' by W. W. Story, 1863. The writer adds, "A curious feature in the oaths of the Italians may be remarked. _Dio mio_ is usually an exclamation of sudden surprise or wonder; _Madonna mia_, of pity and sorrow, and _per Christo_ of hatred and revenge. It is in the name of Christ, and not of God as with us, that imprecations, curses, and maledictions are invoked. The reason is very simple. Christ is to him the judge and avenger of all, and so represented in every picture he sees, from Orcagua's and Michael Angelo's Last Judgment down, while the Eternal Father is a peaceful old figure bending over him." [24] 'The Conversyon of Swerers,' 1540. [25] The identity of ideas that we have referred to as invariably occurring in mediaeval writings, whenever they happen to turn upon a similar theme, may be shown by comparison of the following extracts. They are taken from writers of different times and countries, and who are not directly plagiarising one another. Dan Michael, in the 'Ayenbite of Inwyt' (modernised), has:-- "These (Christians) are worse than the Jews that did crucify him. They broke none of his bones. But these break him to pieces smaller than one doth swine in butchery." Robert of Brunne, in the 'Handlyng Sinne,' writes:-- "Thy oaths do him more grievousness, Than all the Jews' wickedness; They pained him once and passed away, But thou painest him every day." Again, in the 'Moralite des Blasphemateurs' (circa 1530):-- "Tu luy fais plus dure bataille Que les juifz sans nulla faille Qui pour toy le crucifierent."