Here is an additional instance of Terence’s infinite attention to manners, and of his success in presenting to his readers a perfect copy of the customs and habits of the Greeks. Crito, though he alludes to the death of Chrysis, avoids any mention of death; and breaks off in a manner which is infinitely more expressive than words could have been. Some of the ancients, the Greeks in particular, studiously avoided, as much as possible, any direct mention of death, which they accounted to be ominous of evil; and always spoke of human mortality, (when compelled to mention it,) in soft and gentle expressions. They were even averse to write θανατος, death, at full length; and not unfrequently expressed it by the first letter θ; thus, if they wished to write down the circumstance of any person’s decease, they wrote the name of the deceased, and affixed to it the letter θ, _vide_ Note 113, also Isidor. Hispal. Orig. B. 1. C. 23. In breviculis, quibus militum nomina continebantur, propria nota erat apud veteres, quæ respiceretur, quanti ex militibus superessent, quanti in bello excidissent, τ in capite versiculi posita superstitem designabat, θ verò ad unius cujusque defuncti nomen adponebatur. NOTE 191. _And the example of others will teach me what ease, redress, and profit, I have to expect from a suit at law: besides, I suppose by this time, she has some lover to espouse her cause._ Madame Dacier, in a brilliant and acute critique, has explained this passage in a most perspicuous and comprehensive manner. ――――Nunc me hospitem Lites sequi, quam hîc mihi sit facile atque utile, Aliorum exempla commonent. “Présentement qu’un étranger comme moi aille entreprendre des procès, les exemples des autres me font voir combien cela serait difficile dans une ville comme celle-ci.”