| John Bartlett (18201905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| NUMBER: | 8725 |
| AUTHOR: | Pliny the Elder (A.D. c. 23A.D. 79) |
| QUOTATION: | To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 2. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| | Note 1. This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle in his Natural History, as also by some modern physiologists. [back] |
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