Columella, who reports this judgment of Democritus, does not controvert it, but proposes a very frugal method of inclosing with a hedge of brambles and briars, which he says he had found by experience to be both a lasting and an impenetrable fence; but which, it seems, was not commonly known in the time of Democritus.

I did not venture to controvert this opinion, but I made a good supper, which it greatly satisfied her to see me do.

I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted.

It was supposed, not without reason, to have been written to controvert the ideas contained in Bellarmine's "De officio principis christiani".