Ancient motto.
Many years since I read that some pope or emperor caused the following,
or a motto very similar to it, to be engraven in the centre of his
table:--
"Si quis amiecum absentem rodere delectat ad hanc mensam
accumbere indignus est."
It being a maxim which all should observe in the daily intercourse of
life, and in the propriety of which all must concur, I send this to
"NOTES AND QUERIES" (the long wished-for medium), in the hopes that some
kind "note-maker" can inform me from whence this motto is taken, and to
whom ascribed.