"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.: "Cœpisti melius quam desinis: ultima primis Cedunt: dissimiles hic vir et ille puer." Essay XLIII. Of Beauty.--See _Antith._, No. 2. vol. viii. p. 354. "A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions, the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent."] With regard to Apelles, Lord Bacon probably alludes to the story of Zeuxis in Cic. _De Inv._ ii. 1. "Pulcrorum autumnus pulcher."] Query, What is the source of this quotation? Essay XLVI. Of Gardens.-- Many of the names of plants in this Essay require illustration. _Gennitings_ appear to be broom, from _genista_; _quodlins_ are codlings, a species of apple; _wardens_ are a species of pear, concerning which see Hudson's _Domestic Architecture of the Thirteenth Century_, p. 137. _Bullaces_ are explained by Halliwell to be a small black and tartish plum, growing wild in some parts of the country. "My meaning is perceived, that you may have _ver perpetuum_, as the place affords."] The allusion, probably, is to Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 149.: "Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas." "Little low hedges, round, like _welts_, with some pretty pyramids, I like well."] A _welt_ was the turned-over edge of a garment. "Abeunt studia in mores."] From Ovid's Epistle of Sappho to Phaon, _Ep._ xv. 83. "Let him study the schoolmen, for they are _cymini sectores_."] The word κυμινοπρίστης is applied in Aristot., _Eth. Nic._ iv. 3., to a miserly person; one who saves cheeseparings and candle-ends. Essay LII. Of Ceremonies and Respects.--See _Antith._, No. 34. vol. viii. p. 371.