"Veteres Græcos annulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistræ
manus, qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt, sic
plerumque annulis usitatos. Causam esse hujus rei Appianus in
libris Ægyptiacis hanc dicit: quod insectis apertisque humanis
corporibus, ut mos in Ægypto fuit, quas Graeci [Greek: anatomas]
appellant, repertum est, _nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno
digito, de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire_.
Propterea non inscitum visum esse, eum potissimum digitum tali
honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi connexus esse cum
principatu cordis videretur."--_Noctes Atticæ_, lib. x. cap. 10.
Other reasons are assigned by Macrobius; and the author of the _Vulgar
Errors_ (book iv. ch. 4.) has entirely overthrown the anatomical fiction
mentioned above. Can any one give me any further information than that
contained in L'Estrange or Wheatly, or in the authors to which they
refer? The fourth finger of the left hand is certainly "the least active
finger of the hand least used, upon which, therefore, the ring may be
always in view, and least subject to be worn out:" but this is a very
unromantic and utilitarian idea.