FOOTNOTES:

"We own your verses are melodious,But then comparisons are odious."

Lilly, in the "Euphues," seems to think that comparisons may at times be an offence when the objects of such a scrutiny are incomparable in their excellence; that each is so perfect that any suggestion of comparison becomes necessarily a depreciation and a dethronement. Hence he writes—"But least comparisons should seeme odious, chiefly where both the parties be without comparison, I will omitte that," and he returns to this idea in his "Midas," where he distinctly lays down the proposition that "Comparisons cannot be odious where the deities are equall."

The picturesque adage, "a rolling stone gathers no moss," is still popular amongst our people. In Turner's "Five hundred pointes of good husbandrie," a book written between three and four hundred years ago, we find the same precept:

"The stone that is rouling can gather no mosse;Who often remoueth is sure of losse.The rich it compelleth to paie for his pride;The poore it vndooeth on euerie side."

Marston, in "The Fawn," written in the year 1606, has an allusion to this proverb:

"Thy head is alwaies working: it roles and it roles,Dondolo, but it gathers no mosse."

In the "Vision of Piers Plowman" we appear at first sight to have a quaint and interesting variant—"Selden mosseth the marbelston that men ofte treden." But it will be seen that in thus altering the wording from the type-form we have also varied its significance; it is, infact, a new saying, and of different application. To point out to a restless and aimless ne'er-do-well, throwing up one position after another, that no moss will be found growing on the doorstep of some busy office would be an entirely pointless proceeding not tending to edification.

Another familiar proverb is "well begun is half done." We find its equivalent in Horace and the severer Juvenal. Many of our proverbs were as familiar to Horace as to ourselves. "Money in purse will always be in fashion," and to "harp on the same string" are expressions, for instance, that were very familiar to the ancient Romans, and which are quite as intelligible to-day.

In the "Confessio Amantis" of Gower we find:

"A prouerbe I haue herde saie,That who that well his worke beginneth,The rather a good ende he winneth."

This proverb has historic interest, as its use on one fateful occasion was the final cause of desolating civil war that long ravaged Tuscany. When Boundelmonte broke his engagement with a lady of the family of the Amadei, and married into another, the kinsmen assembled in council to consider how the slight should be avenged, and atonement made for their wounded honour. Some of the more impetuous demanded the death of the young cavalier as the only possible reparation; but others hesitated, not from any particular regard for the traitor, but because of the great issues involved—consequences which in the after-event proved so disastrous to the Florentines. At length Mosca Lamberti, tired of this hesitation, sprang to his feet, and declared that those who talked were not likely to do anything else but talk, that the consideration of the matter from every point of view would lead to no worthy result, andmake them objects of contempt, and then quoted the adage familiar to them all—"Capo a cosa fatta"—well begun is half done. This sealed the fatal determination, the die was cast, Boundelmonte was murdered, and thus was Florence at once involved in the strife between Guelph and Ghibelline, and the fair land of Tuscany became the battlefield of those contending factions.

The incident is referred to by Dante in the "Inferno." Amid his wanderings in these gloomy shades he presently arrives where

"One deprived of both his hands, who stoodLifting the bleeding stumps amid the dimDense air, so that his face was stained with blood,Cried—'In thy mind let Mosca take a place,Who said, alas! "Deed done is well begun,"Words fraught with evil to the Tuscan race.'"

It is a widely recognised principle that those who live in glass houses themselves should be very careful how they throw stones at others, as retaliation is so fatally easy.[77:A]In a collection of "Proverbes en rimes," published in Paris in 1664, we find—

"Qui a sa maison de verreSur le voisin ne jette pierre."

In the "Troilus" of Chaucer we find the same prudent abstinence from stone-throwing advocated, but in this case it is the stone-thrower's head and not his house that is in danger of reprisals.

"Who that hath an hede of verreFro caste of stones war hym in the werre."

The use of the word "verre" instead of glass seems to suggest that the French version was so far current in England that all would know it, and that it was immaterial whether the rendering was in French or in English. When James of Scotland succeeded, at thedeath of Elizabeth, to the English throne, one of the first results was that London became inundated with Scotchmen, all anxious to reap some benefit from the new political position. This influx caused a considerable amount of jealousy, and the Duke of Buckingham organised a movement against them, and parties were formed for the purpose of breaking their windows, and in a general way making them feel the force of an adverse public opinion. By way of retaliation, a number of Scotchmen smashed the windows of the duke's mansion in St Martin's Fields, known as "the Glass House," and on his complaining to the king His Majesty replied, "Steenie, Steenie, those who live in glass houses should be carefu' how they fling stanes." The story is told in Seton's "Life of the Earl of Dunfermline," and it will be appreciated that the quotation by our "British Solomon" of this ancient adage was very neatly put in.

Those who pride themselves on a certain blunt directness of speech, and who declare that they always speak their mind, further define the position they take up by declaring that they call a spade a spade. There certainly are occasions when such a course is the only honest one, when a man has to make his protest and refuse to connive at any circumlocution or whittling away of principle. There are other occasions when a regard for the feelings of others makes such a proceeding sheer brutality, and it is, we believe, a well-established fact that the audience of those who pride themselves on speaking their mind ordinarily find that they are the victims of a somewhat unpleasant experience. Baxter declares, "I have a strong natural inclination to speak of every subject just as it is, and to call a spade a spade, so as that the thing spoken of may be fullest known by the words. But I unfeignedly confess that it is faulty because imprudent." "I amplaine," we read in Marprelate's "Epitome," "I must needs call a spade a spade," and Ben Jonson advises to "boldly nominate a spade a spade."

In the year 1548 Archbishop Cranmer was busily engaged on a design for the better unity of all the Protestant churches by having one common confession and one body of doctrine drawn out of Holy Writ, to which all could give their assent. Melancthon, amongst others, was consulted by the archbishop, and was very favourable to the idea, but he strongly advised him, if the matter were to be carried to a successful issue, "to avoid all ambiguities of expression, call a spade a spade, and not cast words of dubious meaning before posterity as an apple of discord." Wise and weighty words that never fructified.

John Knox, who was not by any means the man to go out of his way to prophesy smooth things or palliate wrong-doing by any euphuism or a prudent turning away of the head, declares, "I have learned to call wickedness by its own terms, and to call a fig a fig and a spade a spade"; while Shakespeare, in his "Coriolanus," goes equally straight to the mark: "We call a nettle but a nettle, and the faults of fools but folly." Erasmus writes: "Ficus ficus, ligonem ligonem vocat" of a certain man.

Boileau in like manner writes, "J'appelle un chat un chat"; and Rabelais, "Nous sommes simples gents, puisqu'il plaist à Dieu: et appellons les figues figues, les prunes prunes, et les poires poires."

In the pages of Plutarch we read that Philip of Macedon, in answer to an irate ambassador, who complained to him that the citizens on his way to the palace had called him a traitor, replied: "My subjects are a blunt people, and call things always by their right names. To them figs are figs, and they call spades spades." The adage is one of unknown antiquity, and may befound in the writings of Aristophanes, Demosthenes, Lucian, and other classic authors. Erasmus, in his "Apophthegmes," published in 1542, tells the story of the discomfiture of the embassy to the Macedonian court very quaintly: "When those persons that were at Lasthenes found themselfes greued and toke fumishly that certain of the traine of Phillipus called theim traitours, Phillipus answered that the Macedonians were feloes of no fine witte in their termes, but altogether grosse, clubbish, and rusticall, as the whiche had not the witte to cal a spade by any other name than a spade, alluding to that the commen vsed prouerbe of the Grekes calling figgues figgues, and a bote a bote. As for his mening was that they were traitours in very deede. And the fair flatte truthe that the vplandishe or homely and play-clubbes of the countree dooen use, nameth eche thinge of the right names."

In Taverner's "Garden of Wysdome," published in 1539, the Macedonians are described as "very homely men and rudely brought vppe, which call a mattok nothing els but a mattok, and a spade a spade"—a very right and proper thing for Macedonians or anyone else to do on most occasions, but sometime a little too much like the unconscious brusqueness of children, who have in such matters no discretion, and who forget, or have never been taught, the more cautious precept that "all truths are not to be told on all occasions."

Those who, avoiding one difficulty, rashly run into a still greater dilemma, are warned, as in More's "Dial," that "they lepe lyke a flounder out of the fryenge panne into the fyre." Tertullian, Plato, and other early writers vary the wording to "Out of the smoke into the fire," but the pith of the matter is the same. Fire and smoke play their part in several adages. One of these, "If you will enjoy the fire you must not mind the smoke," recalls the days when the domestic arrangementswere somewhat cruder than in those more luxurious days, but it still remains a valuable reminder that whatever advantages we may enjoy we must also be prepared for certain drawbacks. The Latin "Commodatis quævis sua fert incommoda secum" covers the same ground; and the French, "Nul feu sans fumée"—no fire without smoke, no good without some inconvenience—echoes the same idea. On the other hand, "Where there is smoke there is fire," the appearance of evil is a warning that the evil exists, the loose word implies the loose life. As the effect we see cannot be causeless, it is a danger-signal that we must not ignore. The present whiff of smoke, if disregarded, may be the herald of half an hour hence a raging conflagration, spreading ruin on every side.

When a strong comparison, the expression of a marked difference, is called for, we may, in the words of Shaclock, in his "Hatchet of Heresies," published in 1565, exclaim, "Do not these thynges differ as muche as chalcke and chese?" or, turning to the "Confessio Amantis" of Gower, find for our purpose, "Lo, how they feignen chalk for cheese!" while Heywood hath it:

"That as well agreeth the comparison in these,As alyke to compare in tast, chalk and cheese."

Another popular proverb of our ancestors was "Fast bind, fast find." Hence, on turning to the "Merchant of Venice," we find the admonition, "Do as I bid you. Shut doors after you: fast bind, fast find—a proverb never stale in thrifty mind"; and the counsel is found repeated in the "Jests of Scrogin," published in 1565: "Wherefore a plaine bargain is best, and in bargaines making, fast bind, fast find"—a certain business shrewdness, a legal document, even the turning of a key in a door, will at times preserve to us unimpaired property that carelessness would have lost to us.

"The more the merrier" is an adage that has a pleasantly hospitable ring about it, though we are reminded in addition that the multiplicity of guests may lead to a certain pinching in the supplies. Heywood reminds us how

"The more the merrier we all day here see,Yea, but the fewer the better fare, sayd he";

while Gascoigne, in his "Poesies," while he quotes with approval the old adage, "Store makes no sore"—no one is the worse for having a little reserve laid by—yet "Mo the merier is a proverbe eke" that must not be overlooked. "More the merrier" is the happy title of a book of epigrams published in 1608, and we may come across the sentiment in two or three of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, and in many other directions.

Our readers will recall Spenser's eulogium on

"Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,On Fame's eternal beadroll worthie to be fyled."

The proverb-seeker finds in his picturesque pages abundant store. The "nonne preeste" exclaims, "Mordre wol out, that see we day by day," and in the Reve's prologue he reminds us that "Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken"; or, as a later writer hath it, "E'en in our ashes live our wonted fires." Chaucer again reminds us that "The proverbe saith that many a small makith a grete"; or, as it is sometimes given, "Many a little makes a mickle." The French tell us that even the drainage of the great deep is possible if only there be sufficient patience: "Goutte à goutte la mer s'egoute."[82:A]Every heart knows its own bitterness, knows all about that skeleton in the cupboard that the world has no suspicion of, knows just where the shoepinches. Hence Chaucer exclaims, "But I wot best when wryngeth me my scho";[83:A]and in his "Testament of Love," where he writes, "Lo, eke an old proverb, he that is still seemeth as he granted," or, as we should say now-a-days, "Silence gives consent."[83:B]Another well-known adage and piece of worldly wisdom is, "Of two ills choose the least," a proverb found in the "Imitation of Christ" of À Kempis, in Hooker's "Polity," and elsewhere. Chaucer is to the fore with the saying, "Of harmes two the lesse is for to cheese." The saying appears as "E duobus malis minimum eligendum" in the pages of Cicero, so that it is not by any means an adage of yesterday's creation. It was, doubtless, a venerable saying long before Cicero employed it. When the idea got compacted into a recognised wisdom-chip, who can say? The rule of conduct is so clear and so in accordance with common-sense that we may well believe that the practice, if not the precept, would date from about the year one.

A "nine days' wonder" appears in the pages of the "Troilus" of Chaucer, as "Eke wonder last but nine daies never in towne." A thing makes a great sensation for a few days, and then something else arises, and the former matter is quite forgotten. Chaucer's addition to the adage of the limitation to town is curious, though on consideration a good deal can be said for it, since in towns incidents succeed each other quickly, and aid this obliteration of the past. Sometimes the proverb is extended into "A nine days' wonder, and then the puppy's eyes are open"—in allusion tothe fact that dogs, like cats and several other animals, are born blind. One may read this as referring to those who make a wonder of an ordinary thing; the blindness of these little new-born puppies, or, in somewhat less literal sense, the puppies whose eyes are presently open, are those people who are blind and puzzled over some incident which they presently see through and unravel, and then lose all interest in.

As an encouragement to those who seem to be the victims of one misfortune after another, of continued ill fortune, the ancient saw is quoted, "'Tis a long lane has no turning." The expression is a picturesque one, and no doubt carries comfort and teaches patience. In the pages of Chaucer it appears as "Som tyme an end ther is on every deed." The only time we knew it absolutely to fail was in the case of an old man named Lane, who had his full share of the worries of life, and to whom one kindly well-wisher after another quoted this well-worn saying. Each thought that he had hit upon a happy idea, and applied it there and then, in full faith that it would be of soothing efficacy, but as, in the aggregate, the old fellow had had it fired off at him some hundreds of times, it acted instead as a powerful irritant! It was one trouble the more to carry through life.

One might, in the same way, though we have by no means exhausted the Chaucerian wealth of proverb-lore, hunt through the pages of Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, and other writers, and should reap an abundant harvest. It may be somewhat of a shock that Milton's name should appear in such a connection, since the stately dignity of his work would appear entirely alien to the general tone of the popular adage; but one sees in this passage from "Comus"—

"Was I deceived, or did a sable cloudTurn forth her silver lining to the night?"—

a beautiful allusion to a well-known proverb. The plays of Shakespeare abound with these proverbial allusions. In the "Taming of the Shrew," for instance, we find, "Now, were I a little pot and soon hot," a proverb applied to short-tempered people who on slight cause wax wroth. The homely pot plays its part in homely conversation. The man whom Fortune has thwarted "goes to pot," waste and refuse metal to be cast into the melting-pot. The man on hospitable thoughts intent may invite his neighbour to pot-luck, to such chance repast, good or bad, as the "pot au feu" may yield. People who deride or scorn others for matters in which they are at least as much concerned are compared to the pot that called the kettle black,[85:A]while the rashness of those who, insufficiently provided with this world's goods, seek to rival others better provided and come to grief in the experiment, are reminded how the brazen and earthen pot swam down together on the swirling flood and collided to the detriment of the pitcher.[85:B]In "King Henry VI." we have "Ill blows the wind that profits nobody,"[85:C]and "Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep." In "Hamlet" the familiar adage, "Murder will out," appears as "Murder, though it have no tongue, willspeak." "Every dog has his day"; we say: every man his chance, so in "Hamlet" we find—

"Let Hercules himself do what he may,The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."

In "Othello" we come across an equally well-known proverb, "They laugh that win," so quaintly curtailed by Heywood into "He laugth that winth." Another familiar adage is that "Use is second nature," and this Shakespeare, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," refines into "How use doth breed a habit in a man!" In "As You Like It" another well-known saw presents itself in the lines, "If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue." The bush in question was an ivy-bough, the emblem of Bacchus, and the custom of marking the wine-shop by this dates from Roman days. "Vino vendibili hedera non opus est." The custom was continued throughout the Middle Ages; but a good article, the proverb tells us, needs no advertisement, or, as the French proverb hath it, "Au vin qui se vend bien il ne faut point de lierre."

In the days of our forefathers the streets were narrow, and there were no pavements; while discharging pipes and running gutters by the sides of the walls made the centre of the road the more agreeable place for the traveller. Wheeled conveyances of divers sorts passing and repassing forced the foot-passenger to the side of the road, and any tumult or street fight would drive the conquered pell-mell to take refuge in the houses or to the shelter of the wall out of the rush. Hence the proverb, "The weakest goes to the wall." In "Romeo and Juliet" Sampson and Gregory are found in the market-place of Verona, and the former declares, "I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's"; to whom the latter unsympatheticallyreplies, "That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall."

The wisdom of our ancestors discovered that "He who is born to be hanged will never be drowned," and our readers will recall how in the "Tempest" Gonzalo comforts himself in the contemplation of the villainous ugliness of the boatswain. "I have great comfort," he says, "from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is perfect gallows. Stand fast, good fate, to his hanging! Make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little advantage! If he be not born to be hanged our case is miserable."

To make our list of quotations exhaustive, and therefore probably exhausting, is by no means necessary; we give but samples from the bulk, and in conclusion of our present chapter give some few of our commoner saws and one, or at most two, references to some old writer's work where it may be encountered. Naturally, the wording of some of the more ancient quotations is not always quite that of to-day.

"The potte may goo so longe to water that atte the last it is broken" we found in a manuscript of about the year 1545, entitled, "The book of the Knight of La Tour." The very ancient proverb, familiar to us in its Biblical garb, about the folly of the blind leading the blind, will be found in Gower's "Confessio Amantis"—

"As the blinde another ledeth,And, till they falle, nothing dredeth."

The constant dropping that wears at length away a stone we found referred to in a manuscript of the time of Henry VIII. "So long may a droppe fall that it may perse a stone."

"The common proverb, as it is read,That we should hit the nail on the head,"

is a couplet in a little book, "Wit Restor'd," issued in 1568, and we also find Skelton writing, "He hyt the nayle on the hede."

A caution to those who try and steer a deceitful course between those of opposing interests, treacherously allowing each to think they have exclusive support, has duly been crystallised into a proverb, and Lily introduces it in the following passage:—"Whatsouer I speake to men, the same also I speake to women. I meane not to run with the Hare and holde with the Hounde." "By hook or by crook" will be found in Spenser's "Fairie Queene." "Diamond cut diamond" is in Ford's play of "the Lover's Melancholy." "Every tub must stand upon its own bottom" occurs in the "Pilgrim's Progress." "He must have a long spoon that would eat with the devil" is found in Chaucer and Shakespeare, amongst other writers. That "The moon is made of green cheese" is re-asserted by Rabelais and in the pages of "Hudibras."

In Swift's "polite conversation," proverbs are thickly strewn. We find the old statement that "You must eat a peck of dirt before you die," the well-meant impertinence of "teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs," the communistic doctrine that "Sauce for the goose is no less sauce for the gander," and many other well-worn scraps of ancestral belief and practice. The wisdom of suiting your position to your circumstances, of cutting one's garment according to the material available, is emphasised in a "Health to the gentlemanly profession of Serving-Men," a brochure issued in 1598, where these worthies are warned, "You, with your fraternitie in these latter dayes cannot be content to shape your coate according to your cloth." In Marston's play of "What you Will," written in 1607, we have a familiar andhomely caution borrowed from the experience of the kitchen—"Faith, Doricus, thy braine boils; keele it, keele it, or all the fatts in the fire," a proverb employed when by some inadvertence a man brings against himself a sudden blaze of wrath.

Proverb-hunting is a very pleasant recreation. We have left a vast field practically untrodden. We cannot do better than conclude in the quaint words of a little pamphlet that we once came across—"a collection of the Choycest Poems relating to the late Times" (1662). "Gentlemen, you are invited here to a feast, and if variety cloy you not, we are satisfied. It has been our care to please you. These are select things, a work of time, which for your sake we publish, assuring you that your welcome will crown the entertainment. Farewell."

[65:A]"Love me little, love me long" is found in the writings of Christopher Marlowe: "Pray, love me little, so you love me long," in Herrick.

[66:A]"The Pleasant Historie of the two Angrie Women of Abington, with the humerous mirthe of Dick Coomes and Nicholas Prouerbes, two seruingmen. As it was lately played by the Right Honourable the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admirall, his Servants. By Henry Porter, gent. Imprinted at London for Joseph Hunt and William Farbrand, and are to be solde at the corner of Colman Street, neere Loathburie. 1599."

[72:A]"Why urge yee me? My hart doth boyle with heateAnd will not stoope to any of your lures:A burnt child dreads the ffyre."—Timon, c. 1590.

[72:A]

"Why urge yee me? My hart doth boyle with heateAnd will not stoope to any of your lures:A burnt child dreads the ffyre."—Timon, c. 1590.

[72:B]Ovid writes: "Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas"—the man who has been wrecked dreads still water. The Portuguese make the cat the subject of their proverb—"Gato escaldado d'agua fria tem medo."

[73:A]We need scarcely point out that any reference to the use of any proverb is not intended to imply that this is the only use of it by that writer. "Yet gold is not that doth golden seem" is equally Shakespeare with the quotation given above. One passage will ordinarily suffice, but not because it is the only one available.

[74:A]The story is told by Pausanias: "Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra."—Horace.

[77:A]"Stones and idle words are things not to be thrown at random."

[82:A]"Petit à petit l'oiseau fait son nid."

[83:A]"What cloke for the rayne so ever yee bring mee,Myselfe can tell best where my shoee doth wring mee."—Heywood.

[83:A]

"What cloke for the rayne so ever yee bring mee,Myselfe can tell best where my shoee doth wring mee."—Heywood.

[83:B]In "Cymbeline" Shakespeare writes—"But that you shall not say I yield, being silent, I would not speak." It was a proverb of Ancient Rome, "Qui tacet consentire videtur," and in Modern Italy it reappears as "Chi ta ce confessa." In France it is "Assez consent qui ne dit mot."

[83:B]In "Cymbeline" Shakespeare writes—

"But that you shall not say I yield, being silent, I would not speak." It was a proverb of Ancient Rome, "Qui tacet consentire videtur," and in Modern Italy it reappears as "Chi ta ce confessa." In France it is "Assez consent qui ne dit mot."

[85:A]Or, to quote another expressive and homely English proverb, "The chimney-sweep told the collier to go wash his face." In France they say "La pêle se moque du fourgon," the shovel makes game of the poker.

[85:B]"Burden not thyself above thy power, and have no fellowship with one that is mightier or richer than thyself. For how agree the kettle and the earthen pot together? For if one be smitten against the other it shall be broken."—Ecclesiasticusxiii. 2.

[85:C]"An yll wynd that blowth no man good."—Heywood,Song against Idleness, 1540."It is an old proverb and a true,I sware by the roode,It is an il wind that blows no man to good."—"Marriage of Wit and Wisdom," 1570.

[85:C]"An yll wynd that blowth no man good."—Heywood,Song against Idleness, 1540.

"It is an old proverb and a true,I sware by the roode,It is an il wind that blows no man to good."

—"Marriage of Wit and Wisdom," 1570.

National Idiosyncrasies—The Seven Sages of Greece—Know Thyself—The Laconic "If"—Ancient Greek Proverbs—Roman Proverbs—The Proverbs of Scotland: Strong Vein of Humour in them—Spanish and Italian Proverbs—The Proverbs of France—The "Comédie des Proverbes"—The Proverbs of Spain: their Popularity and Abundance; Historic Interest: their Bibliography—Italian Proverbs: their Characteristics—The Proverbs of Germany—Chinese Adages: their Excellence—Japanese Proverbs: their Poetry and Beauty—Arab Sayings: their Servility: their Humour—Eastern Delight in Stories—African Sayings: their pithy Wisdom—The Proverb-philosophy of the Talmud.

While we find a striking similarity existing between the proverbs of various peoples, many being absolutely identical, and others teaching the same truths under somewhat different external guise; there is also in many cases a certain local and individual colouring that gives added interest.

We see, too, national idiosyncrasies coming to the front in the greater prominence given to proverbs having a bearing in some particular direction. Thus, a poetic and imaginative people will specially dwell on proverbs of a picturesque and refined type, while a thrifty and cautious race will hold in especial esteem the inculcation of saving, of early rising, of steady labour, the avoidance of debt and suretyship. A more impulsive people will care but little for such thraldom, and will teach in its sayings the delightsof the present, the pursuit of the pleasures rather than the duties of life, and the wild doctrine of revenge against those who thwart their desires; while an oppressed and downtrodden race will very faithfully reflect the oppression under which they lie by the sayings that find most favour amongst them.

Our English proverbs, like our language, have come to us from many sources; and while we have some little store that we may claim as of home-growth, the greater part has been judiciously borrowed. We may fairly ascribe to our changeable climate such a warning adage as the advice to "Make hay while the sun shines"; and when a settler on the prairies of the West clothes the excellent doctrine that every man for himself should perform the disagreeable tasks that come in his way, and not seek to transfer them to other people, in the formula, "Every man must skin his own skunk," we feel the sentiment to be redolent of the soil of its birth. The picture it presents to us is so entirely American that it is quite needless to search for its origin in the folk-lore of Wessex or on the banks of the Indus.[91:A]

The greater number of the proverbs of ancient Greece were fraught with allusions to the mythology, poetry, and national history of Hellas, and thus form a valuable testimony to the general high level of intellectual training of this wonderful people. The "Adagia" of Erasmus contains, as the result of the search of many years amongst the literary remains of the classical authors, some five thousand of these ancient sayings. Many that, from their Latin dress we ascribe to the Romans, were really derived from Greek or still earlier sources.

It will be recalled that those who, from their pre-eminent wisdom, were entitled, the Seven Sages of Greece, each inscribed in the Temple of Apollo one sentence of concentrated wisdom. The best known and most freely quoted of these was the "Know thyself," the contribution of Solon of Athens; and the more we reflect on this the more we realise its profundity. To know thyself—to know, for example, thy possibilities of health and strength for strenuous bodily or mental labour, to know thy worldly status, and what of influence is there open to thee or closed against thee; to know thyself, not as the crowd regards thee, but in all the secret workings of thy heart, controlling thy actions, biassing thy thoughts, influencing thy motives; to step aside out of the bustle of life and quietly take stock of thyself; to know how thou standest in view of eternity—that is wisdom. The maxim of Chilo of Sparta was "Consider the end," and that of Bias of Priene the sad indictment, "Most men are bad." Thales of Miletos declared, and the yet greater and wiser Solomon was in accord—"Who hateth suretyship is sure." Periander of Corinth sang the praise of honest work in "Nothing is impossible to industry";[92:A]and Pittacos of Mitylene warned his hearers and pupils to "Seize Time by the forelock." The seventh, Cleobulos of Lindos, pinned his faith on the golden mean, "Avoid extremes." These maxims passed into general circulation and adoption, and thus became of proverbial rank. They do not strike one as being of at all equal value, but there is no doubt that a man who was fortified, not only by the knowledge of these precepts, but, more important yet, by their practice, would be equipped to face unscathed all the possibilities of life.

In our ordinary English word "laconic" is preserveda curious little allusion. The Lacones or Spartans were noted amongst the other Greeks for their brusque and sententious speech, the practice of expressing much in little. Hence our word laconic, meaning concise, pithy. Plato wrote that "If anyone desires converse with a Lacedæmonian he will at first sight appear to him wanting in thought, in power of utterance, but when the opportunity arrives, this same man, like a skilful hurler of the javelin, will hurl a sentence worthy of the greatest consideration." A good example of this trait of the Spartans will be seen in their reply to Philip of Macedon when he threatened them, "If I enter Laconia I will level your city to the dust." Their rejoinder was, "If"!

The prostrate Saul was warned that it was hard for him to "kick against the pricks," to resist the Higher Power, to rebel against the guiding goad, and the utterance was a very familiar one in his ears. It will be found in the Odes of Pindar, the tragedies of Euripides and Æschylus, and in the writings of Terence. Another familiar Biblical text is that "One soweth and another reapeth."[93:A]This, too, would appeal at once to the hearers as a piece of their own proverbial lore. It is at least as ancient as Hesiod, who wrote his "Theogony," and introduced this proverb therein, some nine hundred years before the Christian era.

It is in all countries an accepted belief that the Higher Powers, under whatever name worshipped, help those who help themselves. Thus, the Spaniards say, "Pray to God and ply the hammer," while theGreeks taught, "Call on Athene but exert yourself as well." Another very expressive Greek proverb was "A piped-out life," as applied to one who, in rioting and dissipation, in feasting and drunkenness, had carried out that grim ideal, "A short life and a merry one," who to lulling siren song, the harp, the tabret, and the viol, sailed swiftly down the stream of Time. A graphic picture again is this—"You have burst in upon the bees," applied to one who causelessly, needlessly meddled with matters that were no concern of his, and thereby brought swift retribution on himself.

The proverbs born on Roman soil were considerably fewer in number than those of Greek birth, and this is a result that we should naturally anticipate, since the Romans had not the strong religious feeling, nor the poetic afflatus, nor the subtle thought of the Greeks. The Romans in this, as in much else, were borrowers rather than producers. At the same time the sterling common-sense and energy of the Roman people is seen in their proverbs. They are business-like and practical, inculcating patience, perseverance, independence, and frugality; dealing in a wise spirit with the affairs of life, marriage, education, agriculture, and the like. How true, for instance, to all experience is the "Aliquis in omnibus est nullus in singulis," while in some, heathen as they were in origin, a high moral sense is reached, as, for example, "Conscientia, mille testes."

How expressive is "Res in cardine est." The matter is on the hinge, it must soon now be settled one way or the other, for, as another proverb hath it, "A door must be open or shut"—there can here be no middle course of procrastination and uncertainty. How good, again, the oft-quoted "Qui cito dat bis dat"—"He giveth twice that giveth in a trice," as an old English version rhymingly renders it, or the "Quot homines tot sententiæ." "I seewel the olde proverbe is true," quoth Gascoigne in his "Glasse of Government," which saith, "So many men so many mindes." The French reading is "Autant d'hommes, autant d'avis."

Our old English proverb about the difficulty of getting blood out of a stone is paralleled in the "Aquam a pumice postulare" of ancient Rome, and the saw, "Extremis, ut dicitur, digitis attingere"—to touch, so to speak, with the tips of the fingers—is of special interest to us, as it will be recalled that it is quoted in the New Testament, and applied to the Pharisees who laid on others burdens that they themselves would not touch with one of their fingers.

Our adage, "Opportunity makes the thief," is but the old Roman "Occasio facet furem."

The brief "Latum unguem" is expressive of those who cavil and split hairs[95:A]over trifles, when not the breadth of a nail of difference exists between them, and yet sharp contention is stirred up.

It is needless to dwell at any length on these proverbs of ancient Rome. Their character and tone of thought are very English, and therefore many of them we shall find incorporated in English guise in our midst, while others find a place in our literature in their original setting. Amongst these latter we may name, by way of illustration, "Ab ovo," "Ad captandum vulgus," "Dum vivimus vivamus," "Ex cathedra," "Facilis est descensus Averni," "Humanum est errare," "De mortuis nil nisi bonum," "Carpe diem," "Argumentum ad hominem," "Ars est celare artem," "Petitio principii," "Per fas et nefas," "Ne sutor ultra crepidam," "Vox populi vox Dei," and "Festine lente."[95:B]

While many of the proverbs of Scotland are identical in significance with our own, and only vary from them by some slight dialectic influence, there are not a few that are the special possession of the Scottish people. These have a very distinct individuality. There is rarely much grace or tenderness in them, but they contain abundant common-sense. There is scarcely one that is pointless, while in most the point is driven home mercilessly. As maxims of prudence and worldly morality they are admirable, and have a certain roughness of expression that is often taking. They are distinctly canny, and not uncommonly have a strong touch of saturnine humour.

Many examples are easily recognisable as identical in spirit with the parallel English adages, the slight differences of setting giving them an added interest. One gets so used to things when always presented to us the same way that their value gets dulled, and a new reading then comes very opportunely. The Scottish version, "A bird in the hand is worth twa fleeing bye"[96:A]is, we think, a good example of this. The leading idea in both this and the English declaration that "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" is the greater value of a small certainty than a larger possibility; but, while the twittering of the free birds in the bush may be provoking, there is at least the possibility of their capture, while the Scottish version gives a still greater value to our possession, seeing that even as we grasp it the possibility of increasing our store is rapidly passing away. In a collection, gathered together in 1586, we find "It is better to haif ane brede in hand nor twa in the wood fleande."

Other examples of this practical identity are these: "Before you choose a friend eat a peck o' saut wi' him";"It's no easy to straucht in the oak the crook that grew in the sapling." The "sour grapes" of our English proverb are at once suggested in this northern version: "Soor plooms, quo' the tod, when he couldna' climb the tree"; "Ill weeds wax weel."

The value of this change of diction as an aid to appreciation is also felt still more when it arises from some little antiquity. Our most familiar adages, for instance, seem to possess an added charm when we find them embedded in the quaint English of the poems of Chaucer and others of our earlier writers, and in like manner many of the proverbs given in this collection of the year 1586 have a special interest. The mere setting is a very secondary point, though not without importance, since we readily see that what we need is, in the first and foremost place, the sterling truth, and then this truth enhanced in value by the happy way it is presented to our notice. The following extracts from this collection, gathered together over three centuries ago, will be of interest:—"The fische bred in durtie pooles will taiste of mude," "Whane the sunne schyneth the lyt of the starres ar not seene," "All the praise of wertew consisteth in doing," "Wit is the better gif it be the dearer bocht," "The foull taide hath a faire stoine in his hede," "The sweite kirnell lyeth in the harde schell," "The glass anes crazed will wt the leist clap be crackt," "The fairest silke is soonest soylede," "He quhilk walde gather frwite sould plant treis," "Bargaines maid in speid are comonlie repented at leasure," "Thair is no smoke but quhair thair is sum fyre," "In grettest charge ar grettest cares," "A kyndome is more esilie gotten than keipit," "Quhen the sone schyneth the cloudis wanish away," "The fyne golde must be purified in the flamyng fyre," "Greiwous woundes must have smarting plasters," "Many thingis happen betwene the cupe and thelyp,"[98:A]"Thair is no clayth so fine bot mothes will eit it," "He that lepeth or he looke may hap to leip in the brook."

Scottish proverbs, despite the assertion that the only way to get a joke into a Scotchman's head is by a surgical operation, have a strong vein of humour in them—a feature that is much more characteristic of them than of those of any other nationality the wide world over. What could be happier than this caution to those whose presence is not desired: "A weel-bred dog goes out when he sees them going to kick him out!" "They're keen o' company that tak' the dog on their back," "Friends are like fiddle-strings, they maunna be screwed ower tight."

The national shrewdness and mother-wit is naturally reflected in the national proverb-lore. A very quaint example of this is seen in the warning that "Ye'll no sell your hens on a rainy day." Drenched and wretched-looking, no one will look at them; it is not at all making the best of things. How excellent is this hint against avarice: "Greed is envy's auldest brither, scraggy wark they mak thegither";[98:B]or this: "Ne'er let your gear o'ergang you"; or this: "A greedy e'e ne'er got a gude pennyworth."

How shrewd such adages as: "Changes are lightsome and fools like them"; "He that gets gear before he gets wit is but a short time master of it"; "He is no the fool that the fool is, but he that with the fool deals"; "Oft counting keeps friends lang thegither," the English equivalent being, "Short reckonings make long friends"; "A wise man gets learning fra' them that hae nane i'their ain"; "Better a gude fame than a gude face"; "He that seeks motes gets motes";[99:A]"Ill payers are aye gude cravers"; "He speaks in his drink what he thinks in his drouth." Prosperous people can afford to listen to envious remarks, for "A fu' sack can bear a clout in the side," and be never the worse for it.

There is a sharp touch of sarcasm in many of these northern adages: "The deil's journeyman ne'er wants wark." How true to life the feeling, yet how deftly pointed the satire, "They are aye gude that are far awa," or this very similar utterance, "They're no a' saints that get the name o't." A valuable lesson, too, to people consumed with a sense of their own importance is this: "The king lies doun, but the world runs round." The point becomes sharper yet in the statement that a "Green turf is a gude mother-in-law"—that is to say, this particular member of the family is best in the churchyard.

An old English proverb says that "Almost and very nigh save many a lie"; but the Scotch say, "Amaist and very near hae aye been great liars." The two dicta are in direct opposition, yet both may be accepted.

The power of money to make money is very picturesquely expressed by "Put twa pennies in a purse and they'll creep thegither." Down south we say that "Experience is a dear school, but fools will learn in no other"; but the Scottish method is wiser, if practicable, though there is a touch of selfishness in it: "Better learn frae your neebor's skaith (misfortune) than frae your ain."

It is very true that "His you are whom you serve,"[99:B]and "They that work i' the mill maun wear the livery." How full, too, of wise teaching: "When youdance ken who you tak' by the hand," and realise what the association involves. The mighty power of influence, and the responsibility that rests on us for our actions, the impossibility of arresting the ever-widening circle is well seen in the hint: "If the laird slight the lady sae will the kitchen boy." The saying, "Ye hae gude manners, but ye dinna bear them about wi' ye," is a very delicate way of saving theamour propreof the reproved while indicating evident shortcomings. How quaintly picturesque the adage, again, "Like a chip amang parritch, little gude, little ill," to describe some wholly immaterial thing.

The proverbs of the three great Latin races—French, Italian, and Spanish—are naturally very similar, and are practically interchangeable, all having sprung from the same stock, and thrown into one great store-house. We cannot too distinctly bear in mind that, because a proverb greets us in French, or Italian, or Danish, we must not at once class it as a French, an Italian, or a Danish utterance alone. The inner idea is probably cosmopolitan, and its outer garb is of very little importance; yet, as we have already said, the idiosyncrasy of each people affects their borrowing from the common store, and greatly influences any additions they may make. Instead, therefore, of classifying certain proverbs as French or German, which ordinarily they are not, we should really think of such a gathering as merely French or German individualism, selecting to taste from the general hoard. An old writer says: "The Spanish and Italian proverbs are counted the most Curious and Significant—the first are remarkable for Gravity and fine Instruction, the Latter for Beauty and Elegance, tho' they are a little tinctured with Levity and have too much of the Amour. This last Variety is the Imperfection of many of the French, tho' otherwise they are very Fine and Bright, and solemnly Moral as well asFacetious and Pleasant." This verdict, though somewhat quaintly worded, is a very discriminating and just one: we should be inclined to add to it in the case of the typically French proverbs a rather characteristic touch of conceit and gasconade. The Frenchman ordinarily studies effect a good deal.

Despite a certain unpleasant sneering at women, as in the proverb, "A deaf husband and a blind wife make the best couple," and others that affect to hold feminine virtue, constancy, truthfulness and the like in poor esteem, the Frenchman appears to preserve a perennial spring of affection for his mother and a fervent belief in its reciprocity on her part. Hence, in all proverb-lore, dramatic representation, poetry, oratory, this special relationship is a sacred one, and we get in an arid desert of cynicism so sweet an oasis as, "Tendresse maternelle toujours se renouvelle."

Such proverbs in common use in France as "A cheval donné il ne faut point regarder à la bouche," "Les murailles ont des oreilles," "Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute," "Il ne faut pas parler de corde dans la maison d'un pendu," are but cosmopolitans in French garb. In England we find that "A bad workman finds fault with his tools," but in France this is softened down a little and becomes, "Mechant ouvrier jamais ne trouvera bons outils." Our picturesque declaration that it is sometimes advisable to "Throw away a sprat to catch a herring," loses somewhat in "Il faut hazarder un petit poisson pour prendre un grand." The Gallic "A beau jour beau retour," is a very pleasant variant of our saying, "One good turn deserves another." There is in the English version a somewhat unpleasant suggestion of barter and bargain in this exchange of help, "Nothing for nothing, and not much for a half-penny."[101:A]On the other hand, our "Diamond cutdiamond" is pleasanter in expression than the cruder "Ruse contre ruse."

We have already seen how an English playwright once wrote a comedy in which he introduced English proverbsad nauseam, and we find, in like manner, in France, a French author, Adrien de Montluc, writing in the year 1615 or thereabouts, a play called the "Comédie des Proverbës," where we find strung together dialogue-wise all the most familiar adages then current in France.[102:A]

The proverbs of Spain are very numerous, and are often distinguished by a stately sententiousness, much thoughtfulness, a strong sense of chivalry and honour, and very frequently, with these good qualities, a very happy dash of humour or irony. Ford declares that this abounding proverb-lore "gives the Spaniard his sententious dogmatical admixture of humour, truism, twaddle, and common-sense." A proverb aptly introduced is a decisive argument, and is always greeted with approval by high and low, an essentially national characteristic. It will be recalled how Sancho Panza has an adage for every emergency. The Don uses his own words, being a man of fine fancy and good breeding, to express his own ideas, but the vocabulary of his Squire is almost entirely composed of the well-nigh inexhaustible proverbs of his country. The Arabs, whose language is rich in such wisdom, doubtless furnished numerous contributions to this very marked feature of the national literature.

Many of the Spanish proverbs are of very great antiquity. One interesting example to the historian is connected with an incident that happened at thebeginning of the twelfth century. It is very rarely that one can trace the actual birth of a proverb, but in the present example, "Laws go where kings please to make them," the origin is known. The Church of Spain was in these early days greatly disturbed by a contest as to whether the Roman or the Gothic liturgy should be adopted, and at last the king, Alfonso VI., gave orders for a decisive test and definite settlement. A fire was lighted and duly blessed by the Archbishop, and then a copy of each of these liturgies was dropped into it, it being decided that whichever escaped destruction should be recognised as the true rite. The Gothic text emerged unconsumed from this fiery test, but the king, displeased at the way things had gone, tossed it back again into the fire, and thus arose the proverb, "Alla van leyes adonde quieren reyes." Many proverbs again will be found in the "Chronica General," one of the oldest Spanish books.

The Marquis of Santillana collected some 700 proverbs—"such," he says, "as the old women were wont to use in their chimney-corners." These were published in the year 1508. The "Cartas" of Blasco de Garay appeared soon after this, and went through many editions. The author was one of the cathedral staff at Toledo, and his book was thrown into epistolary form, almost every sentence being a popular adage. The "cartas" concluded with a devout prayer that his labours might tend to edification.

In the year 1549 we have an alphabetical collection of over 4000 adages compiled by Valles, while a famous scholar and professor at the University of Salamanca, Hernan Nuñez de Guzman, accumulated over 6000. These were published in 1555, by a brother professor, two years after the death of Nuñez. While acting as literary executor he somewhat ungraciously declared that respect for his friend and not for the dignity of thetask was his motive. In 1568, Mal Lara selected from the compilation of Nuñez 1000 of the best examples, added some explanatory or appreciative comments to each, and sent them out into the world under the title "The Philosophy of the Common People."

Cæsar Oudin published in Paris in 1608 the "Refranes o Proverbios Castellanos." These were translated into French, and form a very interesting and valuable book.

While the gleanings of Mal Lara were especially intended to foster a practical working philosophy of life, Juan Sorapan de Rieros, in his "Medicina Española en Proverbios Vulgares," took up the medical side, dealing alone with such utterances of popular wisdom as bore on the healing art.

Bartolomé Ximinez Paton, in the year 1567, published a collection of over 1000 Greek and Latin proverbs, with a translation into Spanish, and, where practicable, the addition of a parallel or illustrative Castilian proverb. The book passed through many editions. The translations into the vernacular were in terse rhymes. Other collections, needless to particularise, though good to see, are those of Palmerino, Juan de Yriarte, and Cejudo, all of considerable antiquity, while so recently as 1815 was published in Barcelona the "Refranes de la Langua Castellana," and to this list others could no doubt be added. It will have been observed that the word, "Proverbios" is not employed, but "Refrane," a term derived froma referendo, because it describes a thing that is often repeated, an idea that we are familiar with in our common word "refrain."

How happily does this Spanish proverb satirise the readiness to resent what may have been, after all, a quite innocent remark, "He who takes offence has eaten garlic." The cap, as we say in English, fits. How happy again the sarcasm against awkward and inexpert helpers, "She tucked up her sleeves andoverturned the kettle." The deference paid to wealth, the smoothing of the path, is graphically hit off in the adage, "An ass loaded with gold overtakes everything." The man who can perhaps scarce write his name will find many to flatter him if his coffers be full.[105:A]On the other hand how good the counsel, "Seek not for a good man's pedigree,"[105:B]or this, "Advice whispered is worthless," for anything secret may well be regarded with suspicion, and sincerity needs no veil. How happy again the saying, "I have a good doublet in France," as applied to those who boast of something that cannot be come at; or the advice to avoid over-familiarity, "Shut your door and you will make your neighbour a good one."[105:C]A somewhat similar saying is this, "When the door is shut the work improves," for gossiping means distraction and neglect of duty. "Do not go every evening to the house of your brother." There is sound common-sense in the statement that "An indolent magistrate will have thieves every market-day," since his easy-going neglect of his duties will produce a goodly crop of knaves. Those who solemnly tell as news what all can learn for themselves are happily ridiculed in the assertion that "When the spouts run the streets will be wet," or they are described as "guessing at things through a sieve,"[105:D]making a mystery of what anyone can see at a glance.

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