The jest in this sentence turns on the word _rectè_, which refers to an Athenian custom of binding criminals’ hands and feet together. Simo (A. 5. S. 3. _p._ 86.) orders Dromo to bind Davus in the manner before mentioned: (_atque audin’? quadrupedem constringito_.) Pamphilus says, non _rectè_ vinctus est: _rectè_ has a double meaning, it signifies _rightly_, and also _straight_. Simo pretends to take it in the latter sense, which makes his son’s speech run thus, _He is not bound straight or upright_: to which Simo replies, _I ordered he should not be bound straight, but crooked_, or neck and heels. I trust I have made the force of this pun clear to the unlearned reader: the turn given it in the English translation is borrowed from Echard. NOTE 212. _Pam. (to himself.)――Any one would think, perhaps, that I do not believe this to be true, but I know it is because I wish it so. I am of opinion, that the lives of the gods are eternal, because their pleasures are secure and without end._ “Epicurus observed, that the gods could not but be immortal, since they are exempt from all kinds of evils, cares, and dangers. But Terence gives another more refined reason, which more forcibly expresses the joy of Pamphilus; for he affirms that their immortality springs only from the durability of their pleasures. This passage is very beautiful. Pamphilus prefaces what he is going to say by the expression, “_Any one would think, perhaps_;” this was in a manner necessary to excuse the freedom which, arising from his joy, makes him assign another reason for the immortality of the gods than those discovered by the philosophers, particularly by Epicurus, whose name was still fresh in the recollection of every person, and whose doctrines were very generally received and adopted.” MADAME DACIER. NOTE 213. _Pam.――There is now no impediment to our marriage._ Nec mora ulla est, quin jam uxorem ducam.