Note 61 — Chapter VII · SLAVES.

In illustration of the ancient practice of sealing storehouses and other places where valuable things were kept, we may cite the following anecdote from Diogenes Laertius. (iv. 8. 3.) Lacydes, who succeeded Arcesilaus as principal professor in the New Academy, having, as it would appear, a set of thievish domestics, was in the habit of carefully sealing the door of his storeroom; but, in order not to run any risk of losing the seal, he used, unobserved, as he thought, to slip it into the chamber through an aperture in the door. The slaves, however, diligently reconnoitering his movements, discovered the old gentleman’s secret, and visiting his stores as often as they thought proper, they escaped detection by sealing the door again, and placing through the hole the signet where he had left it.