likely to pass into household words, and to become proverbs among a
people of quick retentive powers, such as the Greeks were, to whom we
are perhaps indebted for this. I send you the extract from Alciatus;
_Emblemata_, No. 162. Antverpiæ, 18mo. 1584. Apud Christophorum
Plantinum.

"Tres Charites Veneri assistunt, dominamque sequuntur:
Hincque voluptates, atque alimenta parant;
Lætitiam Euphrosyne, speciosum Aglaia nitorem;
Suadela est Pithus, blandus et ore lepos.
Cur nudæ? mentis quoniam candore venustas
Constat, et eximia simplicitate plucet.
An quia nil referunt ingrati, atque arcula inanis
Est Charitum? qui dat munera, nudus eget.
Addita cur nuper pedibus talaria? _Bis dat_
_Qui citò dat_--Minimi gratia tarda pretî est.
Implicitis ulnis cur vertitur altera? gratus
Fenerat: huic remanent una abeunte duæ.
Jupiter iis genitor, coeli de semine divas
Omnibus acceptas edidit Eurynome."

Now here we have the proverb clearly enough.

I subjoin the note upon the lines in which it appears.

"Bis dat qui cito dat," in Mimis Publii. "Beneficium inopi bis dat,
qui dat celeriter." Proverb, Bis dat, &c.

Referring to the Sentences of Publius Syrus, published, with the
additional Fables of Phædrus, from the Vatican MSS., by Angelo Mai,