leve in literarum formas
compungit: his literis, quae voluerat, perscripsit: hominem postea,
quoad capillus adolesceret, domo continuit: ubi id factum est, ire ad
Aristagoram jubet; et cum ad eum, inquit, veneris, mandasse me dicito,
ut caput tuum, sicut nuper egomet feci, deradat. Servus ut imperatum
erat, ad Aristagoram venit, mandatumque domini affert: atque ille id
non esse frustra ratus, quod erat mandatum, fecit: ita literae
perlatae sunt."

Herodotus "Terps," c. 35, tells the story somewhat differently. The
following is Mr Beloe's translation of it:--

"Whilst he was in this perplexity, a messenger arrived from Histiaeus at
Susa, who brought with him an express command to revolt, the particulars
of which were impressed in legible characters upon his skull. Histiaeus
was desirous to communicate his intentions to Aristagoras; but as the
ways were strictly guarded, he could devise no other method. He
therefore took one of the most faithful of his slaves, and inscribed
what we have mentioned upon his skull, being first shaved; he detained
the man till his hair was again grown, when he sent him to Miletus,
desiring him to be as expeditious as possible: Aristagoras being
requested to examine his skull, he discovered the characters which
commanded him to commence a revolt. To this measure Histiaeus was
induced by the vexation he experienced from his captivity at Susa."

It is pretty evident that Nash took Aulus Gellius as his authority, from
the insertion of the circumstance of the defective sight of the servant,
which certainly is important, as giving Histiaeus an excuse for shaving
his head.

[58] Peter Bales, who is here immortalised, has also received honourable
mention in Holinshed's Chronicle. He was supposed by Evelyn to be the
inventor of shorthand, but that art was discovered some years earlier by
Dr Timothy Bright, who is better known as the author of "A Treatise of
Melancholy," which was first published in 1586. Bales was born in 1547,
and many of the incidents of his life have come down to us; for while
the lives of poets and philosophers are left in obscurity, the important
achievements of a writing-master are detailed by contemporaries with
laborious accuracy. Mr D'Israeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature,"
has not scrupled to devote many pages to Bales's contests for
superiority with a rival penman of the name of Johnson. Bales was the
improver of Dr Bright's system, and, according to his own accoun