affirmed it was possible to make men immortal, and undertook to breed up children to be so, . . if they were fit for the purpose, . . qui ad hoc idonei essent.
Little words are sometimes of great import in cases of history as well as of law. Evagrius tells us (L. 2. C. 13), that in the Emperor Leo's reign, Constantinople was set on fire by a malignant and wicked Devil in the shape of a woman, . . or by a poor woman at the instigation of the Devil. λεγεται γαρ επ αμφοτερα, says the historian, for it is reported both ways.
A thousand instances might be produced, wherein figurative language, as in this case, has been interpreted into a miraculous meaning. I recollect one remarkable instance, on the contrary, in which the words meant what they expressed in the speaker's mouth, and were taken perhaps for less than they were worth by every body else. An English sailor was attacked at the Island of St. Michael's by a fellow who wounded him twice in the
