Of the Emblems which depict moral qualities and æsthetical principles, scarcely any are more expressive than that which denotes an abiding sense of injury. This we can trace through Whitney (p. 183) to the French of Claude Paradin (fol. 160), and to the Italian of Gabriel Symeoni (p. 24). It is a sculptor, with mallet and chisel, cutting a memorial of his wrongs into a block of marble; the title, _Of offended Poverty_, and the motto, “Being wronged he writes on marble.” DI POVERTA OFFESA. [Illustration: _Giovio and Symeoni, 1562._] Scribit in marmore læſus. _Tempri l’ ira veloce ogniun, che viue, Et per eſſer potente non ha cura, Di far’ altrui talhor danno o paura, Che l’offeſo l’ingiuria in marmo ſeriue_. Like the other “Imprese” of the “TETRASTICHI MORALI,” the woodcut is surrounded by a curiously ornamented border, and manifests much artistic skill. The stanza is,— “Each one that lives may be swift passion’s slave, And through a powerful will at times delight In causing others harm and terror’s fright: The injured doth those wrongs on marble grave.” The “DEVISES HEROIQVES” adds to the device a simple prose description of the meaning of the Emblem,— Scribit in marmore leſus. [Illustration: _Paradin, 1562._] _Certains fols éuentés s’ aſſeurans trop ſus leur credit & richeſſes, ne font point cas d’iniurier ou gourmander de faict & de paroles une pauure perſonne, eſtimans que à faute de biens, de faueur, de parens, ou d’amis elle n’aura jamais le moyen de ſe venger, ou leur rẽdre la pareille, ains qu’elle doiue lien toſt oublier le mal qu’elle a receu. Or combien ces Tirans (c’eſt leur propre nom) ſoyent abuſez de leur grande folie & ignorance, l’occaſion & le temps le leur fera à la fin connoiſtre, apres les auoir admoneſtez par ceſte Deuiſe d’un homme aſſis, qui graue en un tableau de marbre ce qu’il a en memmoire auec ces parolles_: Scribit in marmore læsus. (f.160.) The word here propounded is of very high antiquity. The prophet Jeremiah (xvii. 1 and 13) set forth most forcibly what Shakespeare names “men’s evil manners living in brass;” and Whitney, “harms graven in marble hard.” “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars.” And the writing in water, or in the dust, is in the very spirit of the declaration, “They that depart from me shall be written in the earth,”—_i.e._, the first wind that blows over them shall efface their names,—“because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.”