"Unpitied may he die Who to a friend assistance can deny; Unlocks the treasures of his mind !"* SECTION V. The privileges of this Friendship might be claimed by the descendants of the contracting parties. WHEN this Friendship was contracted it became perpetual. The memorials of it were transmitted from father to son. "Eo presente homini extemplo ostendit symbolum, Quem tute dederas ad eum, utferret filio."+ PLAUTUS, in his comedy entitled Pœnulus, plainly intimates that the descendants of those who formed the friendly compact, might challenge its rights. In the second scene of Act v, he, who had made "the *EURIPID. Medea. Potter's translation. brotherly covenant" with Antidamus, comes to his son, not doubting of an affectionate welcome; for, saith he, "Deum hospitalem, ac tesseram mecum fero.” THE interview which succeeds, is a pleasing illustration of many of the preceding remarks. Pœnulus is introduced inquiring for Agorastocles, who thus replies, Siquidemæ tu Antidam hic quæris adoptatitium, Ego sum ipsus, quem tu quæris. PON. Hem! quid audio? AG. Antidamæ gnatum me esse. PEN. Si ita est, tesseram conferre si vis hospitalem, Eccam attuli. AG. Age dum huc ostende! Est par? Probe. Nam habeo domi. PEN. O mi hospes, salve multum ! Nam mihi tuus pater, Pater tuus ergo mihi Antidamas fuit. Hæc mihi hospitalis tessera cum illo olim fuit. AG. Ergo hic apud me hospitium tibi præbebitur. 1 PEN. Dii dent tibi omnia quæ velis !" THE antient Greeks, also, deposited these tokens among their treasures, to keep up the memory of their friendships to succeeding generations; as we are informed by the comment of Eustathius on that passage of Homer where Diomedes recounts to Glaucus the gifts which their ancestors Oeneus and Bellerophron had presented each other. SECTION VI. A Practice of this kind seems to have been in use among the early christians. TERTULLIAN has these words: "Sic omnes probant unitatem; dum est illis communicatio pacis, et appellatio fraternitatis, et contesseratio hospitalitatis: quæ jura non alia ratio regit quam ejusdem sacramenti una traditio."* THE tessera was carried by them in their travels as an introduction to the friendship * De Præscrip. cap. 20. See also S. AMBROS. lib. ii. offic. cap. 21, and lib. iii. cap. 7. CHRYSOSTOM. concione 2, de Lazaro. AUGUSTIN. serm. 70, de temp. CONCIL. TRIDENT. sess. xxv. c. 8. and brotherly kindness of their fellow christians.* Afterwards, heretics, to enjoy those privileges, counterfeited the tessera. The christians then altered the inscription. This was frequently done, till the Nicene council gave their sanction to those marked with the initials of the words Πατης, Υιος, Αγιον Πνευμα. These B. Hildebrand calls "tesseræ canonicæ."t THE impostor Peregrinus, as we learn from the particulars stated by Lucian,‡ feigned himself a christian, that he might not only be clothed and fed by them, but assisted on his travels and enriched by their generosity. But his artifice was detected and exposed. “PEREGRINUS, philosophus gentilis, lucri causa religionis christianæ stimulator, etiam carcerem toleravit; sed collecta non parva pecunia, ex eleemosynis Sanctorum, descivit, satis sibi aiens in hospitalitate christianorum.§ * C. CORN A LAPIDE, Comment. in Pauli Apost. epist. Hæbr. cap. xiii. † Col. in Alma Julia. LUCIANI opera, tom. III. lib. 9. p. 325. edit. Amst. 1743. § EUSEB. chron. anno xti. 78. See also the testimonies of AULUS GELLIUS, AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, ATHENAGORAS, and TERTULLIAN. THE procuring a tessera, as a testimony of evangelization, answered all the purposes, and saved the trouble of formal written certificates, and introductory letters of recommendation. The danger of its being used by impostors, as in the case of Peregrinus, made it necessary to preserve the token with great care, and never to produce it but upon special occasions. Notwithstanding the simplicity of this method, it continued in use until the time of D. Burchardus, Abp. of Worms, who flourished A. D. 1020, who mentions it in a visitation charge. SECTION VII. Application. WE find from the foregoing sections that the tessera was the testimonial and pledge of the most perfect friendship; the obligations of which were mutual, sacred, and indissoluble, and the benefits perpetual. The little token was carefully and privately kept, that no one might claim and enjoy its privileges, but he for whom they were intended. And this custom, I have thought, gives the most natural explication of the following passage in REVELATIONS ii. 17. To him that overcom |