the
most depraved, and had the least foresight, invariably prevailed; for
being conscious of this weakness, and dreading to be overreached by
those of greater penetration, they went to work hastily with the sword
and poniard, and thereby got the better of their antagonists, who where
occupied with more refined schemes."

This paragraph is certainly not in the place mentioned; nor can I find it
after a diligent search through Thucydides. Will Sir A. Alison, or any of
his Oxford friends, be good enough to point out the author, and indicate
where such a passage is really to be found?

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

_"Bis dat, qui cito dat"_ (Vol. vi., p. 376.).--_"Sat cito, si sat
bene."_--The first of these proverbs reminded me of the second, which was a
favourite maxim of Lord Chancellor Eldon. (See _The Life of Lord Chancellor
Eldon_, vol. i. p. 48.) I notice it for the purpose of showing that Lord
Eldon followed (perhaps unconsciously) the example of Augustus, and that
the motto is as old as the time of the first Roman emperor, if it is not of
more remote origin. The following is an extract from the Life of Augustus,
Sueton., chap. XXV.:

"Nil autem minus in imperfecto duce, quam festinationem temeritatemque,
convenire arbitrabatur. Crebro itaque illa jactabat, [Greek: Speude
bradeos]. Et:

'[Greek: asphales gar est' ameinon e thrasus stratelates].'

Et, 'Sat celeriter fieri, quicquid fiat satis bene.'"

Perhaps T. H. can give us the origin of these Greek and Latin maxims, as he
has of "Bis dat, qui cito dat" (Vol. i., p. 330).

F. W. J.

* * * * *

Queries.

HOUSE-MARKS.

Are there traces in England of what the people of Germany, on the shores of
the Baltic, call _Hausmaerke_, and what in Denmark and Norway is called
_bolmaerke_, _bomaerke_? These are certain figures, generally composed of
straight lines, and imitating the shape of the cross or the runes,
especially the so-called compound runes. They are meant to mark all sorts
of property and chattels, dead and alive, movable and immovable, and are
drawn out, or burnt into, quite inartistically, without any attempt of
colouring or sculpturing. So, for instance, every freeholder in Praust, a
German village near Dantzic, has his own mark on all his property, by which
he recognises it. They are met with on buildings, generally over the door,
or on the gable-end, more frequently on t