NOTE 170. _Hitherto, he has been to her a source of more evil than good._ “As I never was able to make any sense of facile hic plus est quam illic boni, I choose to give the passage a turn, though contrary to all the readings which I have seen, which makes that proper, with the omission of one word, which was not before intelligible. The usual construction of the words, as they stand in all editions, is this,――there is more ill in his sorrow, or trouble, (some read dolorem, some laborem,) than there is good in his love: see, particularly, Camus’s edition for the use of the Dauphin, which is not only a poor meaning, and unworthy Terence, but inconsistent with what Mysis had said before in the preceding scenes: I therefore choose to be singular and intelligible, rather than to go with all the editors and translators of our poet, and be obscure.”――COOKE. NOTE 171. _Davus.――Take the child from me directly, and lay him down at our door._ Accipe à me hunc ocius, Atque ante nostram januam appone. Some commentators read vestram januam, appone, lay him down before your door. But Davus tells Simo, A. III. S. II., (page 51, line 13,) that Glycera intends to have a child laid at _his_ door. It could have answered no purpose, moreover, to have placed Glycera’s child at her own door. We must rather suppose that Davus wished Simo to think that Glycera had sent the infant to Pamphilus as its father. _Vide_ Note 174. NOTE 172. _Davus.――You may take some of the herbs from that altar, and strew them under him._ “Altar, Altare, Ara, a place or pile whereon to offer sacrifice to some deity. Among the Romans, the _altar_ was a kind of pedestal, either square, round, or triangular; adorned with sculpture, with basso-relievos, and inscriptions, whereon were burnt the victims sacrificed to idols. According to Servius, those _altars_ set apart for the honour of the celestial gods, and gods of the higher class, were placed on some pretty tall pile of building; and, for that reason, were called _altaria_, from the word _alta_ and _ara_, a high elevated _altar_. Those appointed for the terrestrial gods, were laid on the surface of the earth, and called _aræ_. And, on the contrary, they dug into the earth, and opened a pit for those of the infernal gods which were called βοθροι λακκοι, _scrobiculi_. But this distinction is not every-where observed: the best authors frequently use _ara_ as a general word, under which are included the altars of the celestial and infernal, as well as those of the terrestrial gods. Witness Virgil, Ecl. 5. ――――_En quatuor aras_,