a licence which is not customary in all neuters indifferently: for I should not be so willing to say armum _judicium_, as _armorum_; though in the same writer we meet with _nihilne ad te de judicio_ armum _accidit_? And yet (as we find it in the public registers) I would venture to say _fabrum_, and _procum_, and not _fabrorum_ and _procorum_. But I would never say duorum virorum _judicium_, or _trium_ virorum _capitalium_, or _decem_ virorum _litibus judicandis_. In Accius, however, we meet with _Video sepulchra duo_ duorum _corporum_; though in another place he says, _Mulier una_ duum virum. I know, indeed, which is most conformable to the rules of grammar: but yet I sometimes express myself as the freedom of our language allows me, as when I say at pleasure, either _prob deum_, or _prob deorum_;--and, at other times, as I am obliged by custom, as when I say _trium_ virum for _virorum_, or sestertium nummum for _nummorum_: because in the latter case the mode of expression is invariable. But what shall we say when these humourists forbid us to say _nosse_ and _judicasse_ for _novisse_ and _judicavisse_; as if we did not know, as well as themselves, that, in these instances, the verb at full length is most agreeable to the laws of grammar, though custom has given the preference to the contracted verb? Terence, therefore, has made use of both, as when he says, _eho tu cognatum tuum non noras_? and afterwards, _Stilphonem, inquam, noveras_? Thus also, _fiet_ is a perfect verb, and _fit_ a contracted one; and accordingly we find in the same Comedian, _Quam cara_ SINTQUE _post carendo intelligunt_, and _Quamque attinendi magni dominatus_ SIENT. In the same manner I have no objection to _scripsere alii rem_, though I am sensible that _scripserunt_ is more grammatical; because I submit with pleasure to the indulgent laws of custom which delights to gratify the ear. _Idem campus habet_, says Ennius; and in another place, _in templis isdem_; _eisdem_, indeed, would have been more grammatical, but not sufficiently harmonious; and _iisdem_ would have sounded still worse.