WIDENER LIBRARY
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SELECT PROVERBS
or
ALL NATIONS:
ILLUSTRATED
WITH NOTES AND COMMENTS.
TO WHICH IS ADDED,
A SUMMARY OF ANCIENT PASTIMES.
HOLIDAYS AND CUSTOMS.
WITH
Y ANALYSIS OF THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND
OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
THE WHOLE ARRANGED ON A NEW PLAN.
* Proverbs existed before books."-D'Israeli,
BY THOMAS FIELDING.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY P. COVERT.
1825.


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ADVERTISEMENT.
in making the present Selection of Proverbs, the first ob-
ject has been to glean the wisest and best in the Sayings
of all Nations; collecting pot merely their ethical maxims,
but whatever is characteristic of national manners, hu.
mour, and intelligence.
With respect to arrangement, I have not exactly fol.
lowed the plan of any of my predecessors, but have en -
deavoured to combine the double advantages of alpha-
betic order, with facility for referring to any particular de-
scription of proverbs, according to its subject.
The authors to whom I have chiefly resorted, are, Ray's
English Proverbs, Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Mackintosh's
Gaelic Proverbs, the French and Italian Proverbs of Du.
bois and Veneroni, Collins' Spanish Proverbs, the Glossary
of Archdeacon Nares, Grose's Provincial Glossary, D'Isra-
eli's Curiosities of Literature, Todd's Johnson ; with seve-
Tal minor works, too numerous to mention.
It is necessary to bear in mind, our's is only a SELEC-
TION : to have given the entire proverbs of any people,
would have far exceeded the limits of the present plan,
and consequently I have gleaned from each pation what
seemed worthy of modern taste and refinement. Where
a proverb appeared curious or important, the original
o parallel proverb in other languages has been retained :
this can be attended with little inconvenience to the En-
glish reader, and may be interesting to the scholar, and
those who wish to be accurately acquainted with the spirit
and origin of the Old Sayings. Besides, there are persons
so fastidious as to refrain from quoting a proverb in plain
English, who would not scruple to use it in the Latin, Ita.
lian, French, or Spanish languages.


ADVERTISEMENT.
" To each proverb is ...ded the name of the country to
which it belongs, when that could be ascertained; and
when no name is affixed the proverb may generally be con-
cluded to be English. 'ut there is nothing so uncertain
as the derivation of proverbs, the same proverb being often
found in all nations, and it is impossible to assign its pa-
ternity. For this, two reasons may be given. Proverbs
are founded on nature; and as nature and man are gener-
ally uniform, it is no wonder that different people, under
similar circumstances, have come to similar conclu.
sions. Another reason is, their short and portable
form, which adapted them for communication from
one nation to another.
The exposition of ANCIENT PASTIMES, CUSTOMS,
&c. which forms the second part, was necessary to eluci-
date the proverbs; one exhibits the mind; the other,
the living manners of the period. In thi: portion of the
work, I chiefly relied on Strutt's Sports and Pastimes
of the People, Brand's Observations on Popular Antiqui-
ties, and the voluminous works of Grose.
“ VULGAR ERRORS” form the third subject, and com-
plete the picture of the olden time: these I chiefly col-
lected from Sir Thomas Brown's Inquiry into Common
and Vulgar Errors, Fovargue's Catalogue of Vulgar Er-
tors, and Barrington's Observations on the Ancient
Statutes.
At the conclusion is placed under a different arrange.
ment, an “Analysis of the Wisdom of the Ancients, and
of the Fathers of the Church ;" we have thus the wisdom
of the people derived from experience, to contrast with
the wisdom of the Schools of Poets, Philosophers, and the
fonnders of the Christain faith. The intention is, to
form a supplemental volume on the “ Wisdom of the
Moderns," including the beauties, ranged aphoristically,
of the most celebrated writers, from the period of the
revival of learning to the present time.
The work will then be complete, condensing, in a small
coinpass, the essence of universal knowledge, natural and
acquired. •


INTRODUCTION.
great mass of aphoristic literature. It is a treasure constante
ly accumulating; as the world grows older, the proverbial
avalanche augments in bulk, till at length it will comprise a
brief abstract of the wisdom of all ages, from the beginning .
to the end of time. To describe proverbs as only the remains
of an“ ancient philosophy," is much too limited; they are the
fruits of all philosophy, ancient and modern : what was for-
merly a bright thought, or apposite allusion, consecrated to
the learned, becomes, in process of time, the common proper.
ty of the people. We thus see the generation of proverbs,
and how the wisdom of poets and philosophers becomes the.
every-day wisdom of the populace, divested only of the re-
dundancy of the original. Our own age will, doubtless, con-
tribute to the general stock, leaving behind an aphoristic de-
posite, characteristic of the manners and genius of the times,
and requiring the aid of future paræmiographers to collect
and elucidate.
In this view of the subject, proverbial literature becomes
a most interesting subject of inquiry, not only from the an-
tiquity of its origin, but as the ground-work of human knowl-,
edge, and great storehouse of facts and experience. With
the exception, however, of Mr. D'ISRAELI scarcely a writer
of celebrity has deemed the philosophy of proverbs worthy
of investigation. Men of letters have been more intent on cul-
tivating the barren field of "points and particles.' ---of words
and sounds---the mere instruments of thought; while the
thoughts themselves, clothed in the most ancient costume,
have been comparatively neglected. I will endeavour in some
degree, to supply this omission
The first point of view in which the OLD SAYINGS are in-
teresting, is from the light they throw on the history of na-
tions. From the proverbs of a people, we may learn the
chief peculiarities in their moral and physical state---not only
their i wit, spirit, and intelligence." as Lord Bacon observes.
but their customs, domestic avocations, and natural scenery.
How easy it is, for example, to collect the condition of the
ancient Gael from their short sayings and apothegms-that
they were a melancholic people, simple, superstitious-and
living enveloped in mountains and mist. Scotland is, in
like manner, embodied in her popular sayings. The Scot-
tish proverbs exceed those of any nation, in number, point,
humour and shrewdness. They are figurative, rustic, and
predatory; often gross and indelicate in their allusions to di-
et and domestic habits ; yet they strongly indicate the local
peculiarities of the country, and the thrift and keenness for
which the inhabitants have been celebrated. The proverbs
of Italy are of an opposite character. They are literal,
more of the nature of maxims : full of subtle reflec
government and public affairs, the infidelities of women and


INTRODUCTION.
princes, the rapacity of priests, and the tedium and deceitful.
ness of artificial life. In short, they are the maxims of courts,
society and refinement, and scarcely come under the denom-
ination of proverbs; by which is generally understood, the
wisdom of the common people, as exemplified in their daily
employments and local circumstances.
T'he Spanish proverbs are celebrated for their pith an hu-
mour, but they are more characteristic of the age of CER-
VANTES and ĜIL BLAs than of the modern Spaniards. They
too are severe on the gallantries of women, but replete with
humour and good pature--and, like those of Italy, teem with
jokes on the “ fat monks," – with a sprinkling of satire on
kings and governments, of which, formerly, the Spaniards
entertained a lively jealousy.
England contains a rich mine of proverbial lore, in which,
I fancy, we may trace the genius of the peopie. We are a mix-
ed race, and our character partakesof the compound nature of
our descent-its excellence consisting not ir, one predominant
quality, but in the union of several. We have not the rich
humour and glowing imagination of the Spaniards, the insid-
ious refinements of the Italians, the selfish prudence of the
Scotch, nor the delicacy and gaiety of the French, but we
have a sprinkling of all these. What particularly distin-
guishes our proverbs, is their sterling good sense : which it-
self is a constellation of moral and intellectual excellence.--
There is too in them abundant wit and pleasantry, but their
chief value is as a Manual of Life-the art of living wisely,
happily, and prosperously. In this, I think them unrivalled.
One thing is to be remarked of them.-namely, that they
are truly the mother wit of the country : all our collections
of Old Sayings are comparatively of ancient date; they
.the sayings of the people before they had received any pol-
ish from education or book-learning, and of course are of na-
tive growth. The same cannot be said of the French and
Italian, nor, I believe of any European nation. Between the
French and English proverbs there is great resemblance in
spirit and idiom, not, however, without those chara cteristic
differences which always discriminate the two nations-
JOHN BULL delivering himself in his broad substantial humour
and MONSIEUR in more delicate phraseology. The follow-
ing parallel illustrates this distinction. -
JohnBull.-One shoulder of mutton draws down another.
Monsieur.-L'appetit vient en mangeant.
The Germans are not remarkable for their proverbs, pro-
bably from an aversion to the aphoristic style : they have
doubtless their proverbial phrases, like all other countries,
but I have not seen any regular collection of them. The
Russians have a few, some of which have found their way


INTRODUCTION,
into Ray's Collection. In the aphorisms of the East, with
the exception of a few Arabic maxims, which have merit,
there are no traces of superior intellect or observation.-
Like the inhabitants of warm climates, generally, they are
effeminate and pointless; consisting chicfly of moral pre-
cepts, drawu rather from the imagination than real life and
human nature.
In the proverbs of all countries the fair sex have sustain-
ed a singular injustice; and what renders it more remark-
able is, that the nation, most celebrated for gallantry have
been the greatest offenders,---since it is in the popular say-
ings of Italians, French, and Spaniards, that women are
most bitterly reviled, and the constant theme of suspicion,
scorn and insult. I will cite a few examples, some of which
have not appeared in the Collection, for I was loth to pre-
serve memorials so disgraceful to mankind. The following
are from the Italian
Dal mare nasce il sale, e dalla donna nasce molte male,
“Salt from the sca. and ills from women.”
Chi e stracco di bonaccie, si mariti.
“Who is weary of a quiet life, get himself a wife.”
Chi ha una bella moglie, ella non e tutto sụa.
“ He who has a handsome wife, has her not all to himself,"
Donna Brutta e mal stommacco, donna heila mal de teste..
“ An ugly woman is a disease of the stomach, a handsome
woman of the head."
The followiug are French :
Que femme croit, et ana mene, son corps ne sera jamais sans
пеine,
“Who trusts a woman, and leads an ass, will never be
without sorrow."
Un homme de paille rant una femme d'or.
“A man of straw is worth a woman of gold.”
The Spaniards say,
“ Beware of a bad woman and do not trust a good one.”
“ He who marrie: does well; but he who marries not
does better.”
Did those nations, so famous for chivalry, seek by these
quips and crackers to retaliate behind the backs of the fair
sex for adulation to their faces ? England is proverbially il
“Paradise of Women ;” and it was formerly observed that,
if a bridge were made over the narrow seas, all the women
in Europe would emigrate to this female Elysium Yet
there are a few ungallant expressions in our language, the
not so numerous as among the Italians, French, and Span-


INTRODUCTION.
We are amply compensated for this desideratum by the
light thrown on ancient manners and acquirements. PRO-
VRRBs formed the encyclopedia of former times, comprising
all the existing observations on human nature, natural phe-
nomena, and local history. Men acquired wisdom, not from
books, but oral communications. All the apparatus of the
modern system of education-Horn books, Reading Made
Easy, and Pleasing Instructors, were unknown. Children
did not learn their alphabet, nor their catechism ; but an
adult system prevailed, in which grown persons were taught
the arts of life-the mysteries of good house-keeping, of
economy, longevity, husbandry, and meteorology, in some
traditionary maxim, handed down from generation to genera-
tion, time out of mind.
T'he effect seems to have been much the same as under
the modern system of instruction : and human conduct, in.
fluenced by similar motives, exhibited similar peculiarities,
There are, indeed, certain truths constantly operating in the
world, as unchangeable as the principles of nature. Time
and space have no effect upon them. They are alike palpa-
ble in all ages-are the same now as they were at the begin-
ning, and will be unto the end of time. These universal and
intuitve perceptions are comprised in the PROVERBS OF NA.
TIONS ; which we find, among every people, to inculcate sim.
ilar notions of justice, the moral duties of love and friend-
ship. The progress of knowledge, local situation, and in-
stitutions. mav refine and modify them; but, substantially
they are the same truths,--whether circulated in familiar
aphorisms among the people, or delivered from the universi-
ty chair, disguised in the subtleties of a Hume or Reid, or
the more popular disquisitions of a Paley, Johnson, or Ado
dison
By the operation of some absurd impression, PROVERBS
have for a long time been kept in the back ground in fashion-
able society. LORD CHESTERFIELD said, “ a man of fash-
ion has never recourse to proverbs and vulgar aphorisms;'
and they appear to have withered away under the ban of
his anathema." But it is yielding too much to a name. to
proscribe the most valuable intellectual treasure that has
been transmitted by former ages, to the dictum of a courtier.
Men of fashion, in the days of Elizabeth, James, and Charles,
had recourse to proverbs and aphorisms; and in the splendid
court of Louis XIV. the illustration of popular adages form-
ed the subject of dramatic entertainments. So far then, as
fashion can confer authority, we are justified, from the ex-
ample of these periods, in their use : but it may be demon-
strated, that no other species of knowledge has such a mo-
znentous influence on the affairs of life---on the conduct of in-
dividuals and the history of nations. I will cite a few exam.


INTRODUCTION.
ples, for the purpose of illustration, of proverbs that have
been the most influential in society, and which are constantly
at work either for great good or evil.
" What the eye sees not, the heart feels not!"
How many men and women too, have been determined in a
guilty course, from this single sentence; Again, there is
another saying, which has contributed not a little to people
the world, and is a far more formidable antagonist of the
doctrines of MALTHUS, than either COBBETT or GODWIN:
“God never sends raouths without meat."
It has been the misfortune of many to find the contrary of
this, but it still forms a cardinal point in the creed of the la-
bouring classes; and I am sure it has been my fate, many
hundred times, to hear it repeated by fruitful dames---and
laugh at its absurdity.
Mortui non mordent.
“Dead men do not bite."
This fatal truth has sealed the doom of many an unhappy
wretch, by determining the last resolve of the traitor, burg-
lar, and assassin. We cannot look into the annals of crime,
on the page of history, without meeting with examples of the
deadly application of this prover'. It was applied by Stew-
art, against the Earl of Morton in Scotland, and subsequently
to the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud, in England;
and I am pretty sure, from some faint impressions left in the
course of reading, I could, by a historical research, multi- ·
ply these instances a hundred fold
* Ding down the nests, and the rooks will flee away,"
is a Scottish historical proverb, which gave an edge to the
furor of the Covenanters and Cameronians, to the destruc-
tion of the architectural grandeur of the Romish church;
and made Johnson lament, over many ruined colleges and
cathedrals, the Vandal rage of fanaticisin at the Reformation.
I will only cite another instance, and it is a recent one, still
fresh in the memory of many of us.
Tunc tua res agitur paries, cum proximus ardet!
*" When thy neighbour's house is on fire, beware of thine
own !"
This is a proverb of great antiquity; it is in both Ray
and Kelly's Collections, and was forcibly applied at the com-
mencement of the great political drama of modern history.
The apprehension of danger from the example of France
extending to neighbouring states, was a principal pretext for
the war of 1793; and the above precautionary maxim was
incessantly repeated by the partizans of hostilities. A par-
allel, and more recent case, occurs in the late flagitious inva-
sion of Spain, by the French, which was undertaken on the


si
INTRODUCTION.
alleged ground of guarding against the neighbouring conta
gion-not of French but Spanish democracy!
I could cite more instances; but must refer the reader to
the PROVERBS themselves, where he will find abundant ex-
amples of the application of popular sayings on important
occasions:
It is supposed there are twenty thousand proverbs circu-
lating among the nations of Europe, many of them borrowed
from the ancients, chiefly Greek, who themselves took them
largely from the Eastern nations-and how prodigious must
be the effect of this collective wisdom of ages on the public
mind, daily and hourly operating, and divided into so many
thousand popular maxims, influencing the conduct of indi.
viduals, of all ranks, on every occasion in the affairs of
It would be a puerile feeling, indeed, to affect to despise this
intellectual treasure, or consider its history unworthy of in-
vestigation. Shall we overlook the most precious legacy of
former times, stamped with the approval of former ages-
when the most trilling mutilated fragment of ancient sculp-
ture, or literature, is sought after with avidity, and extolled.
to the skies ? When we are endeavouring to revive the almost
forgotten beauties of the elder writers, shall we neglect their
most precious remains the elite of their wit, choice sayings,
and acquaintance with life? I think it is impossible. But
we need not resort to adventitious reasoning to establish our
argument. I appeal to the litile volume now submitted to the
public, for proof of the importance and utility of proverbial
knowledge. It is impossible I think, to read the sections on
Virtue, Economy, Love, and Public Affairs, without being
convinced that at least three-fourths of the practically ope.
rating knowledge in the world consists of proverbs; and
that it is not books, but the OLD SAYINGS, which regulate
human conduct. I can bear testimony of their value from
experience-from the benefit I have derived while collecting
the materials of this work and I freely confess, that many
things I liad incautiously treasured up, as the original
thoughts of other writers, I have since discovered to be ouly
old truths, expanded from some forgotten adage!
"I am of opinion, Sancho,” says the renowned knight of
La Mancha," that there is no proverb which is not true, be.
cause they are all sentences drawn from experience itself,
the mother of all scienees.” LAVATER, in his Aphorisms.
says, that “the proverbial wisdom of the populace in the
streets, on the roads, and in the markets, instructs the ear of
him who studies man, more fully than a thousand rules os.
tentatiously displayed.
Another distinguished writer of the present day eloquently
observes, on the same subject : “ Proverbs embrace the wide
sphere of human existence, they take all the colours of life,


INTRODUCTION.
xiii
.. they are often exquisite strokes of genius, they delight by
. their airy sarcasm or their caustic satire, the luxuriance of
their humour, the playfulness of their turn, and even
elegance of their imagery, and the tenderness of their senti-
ment. They give a deep insight into domestic life, and open
for us the heart of man, in all the various states he may oc-
cupy-a frequent review of PROVERBS should enter into our
*readings; and although they are no longer the ornaments of
conversation, they have not ceased to be the treasures of
thought !"-Curiosities of Literature, 2d Series, p. 479.
Were there no other learning than that comprised in pro-
erbs, it may be doubted whether it would not be adequate to
the chief business of life. It is only in those branches of
knowledge, connected with the arts and natural philosophy,
that the ancient lore is deficient; but in every thing that re-
lates to the great science of human nature, it is commensurate
with our necessities and occasions. In making it the basis
of our studies, there is a great economy of time and labour ;
for it puts us in possession of useful truths, without either
enslaving us to systems, or perplexing us with abstruse and
unprofitable inquiries.
. With respect to the present volume, as no merit is claim-
ed in its contents, further than the arrangement of the ma-
terials and their occasional illustrations, I will venture to say,
that few can be fouud in modern literature, comprising an
qual fund of amusement and instruction. It 18 not, howev.
er, a volume, small as it is, that we ought to take up and pe-
ruse at a sitting; but one to which we may occasionally ·
resort-and never, I believe, without profit-without finding
something to amuse or instruct-a flash of wit, a stroke of
humour, or an useful precept to guide and adorn life.
eg


CONTENTS..
tions
.
; : . 168
ADVERTISEMENT. iii INTRODUCTION . •
PROVERBS.
Select Proverbs of all Na-Women, Love, and Weds
. . 1 lock . . . . 111
Religion, Virtue, and Learn- Health and Diet - · 121
ing - - - - 66 Husbandry and Weather 129
Laws, Government, and Pub-English Local Proverbs 152
lic Affairs - - - 83 Familiar Phrases - - 145
Economy, Manners, and Rich-Similies and old Saws . 154
es :''.
91 Proverbial Rhymes . - 155
PART II.
SUMMARY OF ANCIENT PASTIMES, HOLIDAYS,
CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES, AND SUPERSTITIONS.
... PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS." ..
General History of Popular Hock-day. ..
Sports . • 163 Sheep-shearing and the Har-
Hand-ball .' - - 165 vest Supper -
168
Stool-ball • . 166 Advent of the New Year ib.
Foot-ball .. - . ib. Fairs - - . . ib.
Pall-mall . . . ib. May-Games - - - ib.
Goff . . . . ib. Whitsuntide-Holidays - ib.
Cricket - • • 167 Country Wakes • • ib.
Running at the Quintain ib. Renaarks · ib.
CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
Midsummer-Eve - - 171|The Passing Bell - - 174
Valentine-Day - - - ib. Mothering Sunday - 175
Collop. Monday - - - ib. All Fool's Day · · ·
Hallow-Eve . · · 172 Maunday 'Thursday . . ib.
The Boy Bishop - . ib. St. Patrick's Day . . 176
The Montem at Eton - 173 Parochial Perambulations ib.
Royal Oak Day - - , 174|Michaelmas Goose · · · ib.
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS.
Hagmena . . . . 177|Christmas Candles - - 178
Mumming -.- - . ib. The Twefth Day - - • ib.
·


ayi
CONTENTS.
Evergreens . . . . . 178A Christmas Carol - 179
Christmas Boxes - - - ibol Christmas Customs - - ib.
POPULAR SUPERSTISTIONS.-
Ghosts - · · · 185) Second Sight · · · 189
Witches - . . . . . ib. Omens, Charms, and Divina.
A Sorcerer or Magician 187] tion • - • • • • • ih.
Fairies, Elves, Knockers, and Remarks . . . . . 192
Brownies • • • - - 188
VULGAR ERRORS.
Legal Errors - .1954 Errors of Man . . . . 197
Errors in Natural History ib. Hitorical Errors .... ib.
“ The Rose of Jericho" 196 Miscellaneous Errors · - 193
Pictorial Errors • • - ibol
PART III.
ANALYSIS OF TIIE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.
AND OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
Avant-Propos - - - - 2001 Life and Death • • • 206
Apger. . . . . . 201 Love . . . . . . 207
Ancestors . . . . . ib. Riches and Poverty · ib.
Manners . . . . . 202 Public Officers ... - 208
Eating and Drinking - - 203 Truth - • • • • • • ib.
Eloquence ... • 204 Time · · · · · · · ib.
Friendship . . . . . ib. Virtue . . . . . . 209
Polly . . . . . . . ib.l Wisdom . . . . . . 211
Industry . . . - - 205 Women . . . . . . 212
Justice'. ..... ib. Miscellaneons Maxims =213
Kings and Laws .. . ib.


PROVERBS, &c.
SELECT PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS.
A BLITHE heart makes a blooming visage.-Scotch.“
A burthen which one chooses is not felt.
Accusing is proving, where malice and power sit judges..
A crowd is not company.
A thousand probabilities do not make one truth.
A blow from a frying pan, though it does not hurt, it sul-
lies.-Spanish.
A calumny, though known to be such, generally leaves a
stain on the reputation. .
Advice to all, security for none.
A cut purse is a sure trade, for he has ready money when
his work is done.
A deed done has an end.-Italian.
This is one instance, among many in Italian history, of
the great influence of proverbs in the affairs of that people.
The two families of the Amadei and the Uberti, from a
dread of the consequences, long suspended the revenge they
meditated on the younger Buondelmonte, for the affront he
had put upon them in breaking off his match with a young
lady of their family, and marrying another. At length,
Moscha Lamberti, suddenly rising, exclaimed, in two pro-
verbs, that " Those who considered every thing would ne-
ver conclude on any thing !" closing with the proverbial
saying-..cosa fatta capo ha! “a deed done has an end !"
This sealed the fatal determination, and was long held in
mournful remembrance by the Tuscans, as the cause and
beginning of the bloody factions of the Guelphs and the
Ghibellins. Dante has immortalized the energetic expres-
sion in a scene of the Tiferno: ..
T'hen one,
Maim'd of each hand, uplifted in the gloom
The bleeding stumps, that they, with gory spots,
Sullied his face, and cried---" Remember thee
Of Moscha too--- [ who, alas ! exclaim'd,


SELECT PROVERBS
The deed once done, there is an endon--that prov'd
A seed of sorrow to the Tuscan race.”
Milton, too, adopted this celebrated Italian proverb; when
deeply engaged in writing “ The Defence of the People,"
and warned that it might terminate in his blindness, he re-
solutely concluded his work, exclaiming, although the fa-
tal prognostication had been accomplished, Cosa fatta capo
ha!
A guilty conscience needs no accuser.
All truths must not be told at all times..
Adversity makes a man wise not rich.
French.--Vent au visage rend un homme sage.
Latin.-Vexatio dat intellectum.
A drowning man will catch at a straw.
Affairs like salt fish ought to be a good while a soaking.
After having cried up their wine, they sell us vinegar.
Spanish.-Haviendo pregonado vino venden vinagre.
A fog cannot be dispelled with a fan.- Japanese.
An instance this, how popular sayings are derived from lo.
cal objects, or from allusions to peculiar, customs. The
coast of Japan is subject to fogs, and both sexes from the age
of five years carry fans.
An honest man has half as much more brains as he needs ;
a koave hath not half enough,
[nish.
A friar who asks alms for God's sake, begs for two.Spaus
A fool's tongue is long enough to cut his throat.
A friend in court is worth a penny in the purse.
A friend to every body is a friend to nobody.--Spanish,
A friend, as far as conscience allows,
French..--Ami jusqu'aux autels.
A great city, a great solitude.
A hand-gaw is a good thing, but not to shave with,
After-wit is every body's wit.
French.---Tout le monde est sage apres coup.
A good tale ill told is marred in the telling.
'. A good servant makes a good master.-Italian.
A grand eloquence, little conscience.
Italian..--Di grand eloquenza picciola coscienza.
* Vide Curiosities of Literature, 2nd Series.


OE ALE NATIONS.
This proverb may be true in the degraded soil of Italy, but
the names of a Chatham, Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Erskine,
render its application doubtful in England.
A good name is better than riches.
A glass of water is sometimes worth a tun of wine, and a
penny a pound.-Italian.
A gude word is as soon said as anrill one.-Scotch.
Alexander was below a man when he affected to be a god.
A man is a man though he have but a hose upon his heud.
A good shape is in the shear's mouth.-Scotch.
A good key is necessary to enter into Paradise.-Italiani. -
All are not thieves that dogs bark at.
All blood is alike ancient.
A merchant's happiness hangs upon chance, winds, and
waves.
A good pay-master is lord of another man's purse.-Ita- -
lian.
A good companion makes good company. --Spanish.
A gude tale is na the waur to be twice told. -Scotch.
A gift long waited for is sold, not given.
Itul.--- Dono molto aspetatto, e venduto, non donatto.
A little wit will serve a fortunate man.
A hundred tailors, a hundred millers, and a hundred wea.
vers, are three hundred thieves.--Spanish.
A handsome hostess is bad for the purse.
Spanish.---Huespeda hermosa mal para la bolsa.
When the mistress of an inn possesses a handsome person
and fascinating manners, she captivates her guests; who
submit to charges they would not allow in a hostess of in-
ferior attractions. The pastry-cooks and other dealers in
the metropolis are well aware how potent beauty is in pro-
moting the trade and commerce of the kingdom!
A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.
Spanish.'
A mad bull is not to be tied up with a packthread.
A mad parish inust have a mad priest.
A grave and majestic outside is, as it were, the palace of
the soul.
A favourite proverb of the Chinese, which Mr. D’Israeli
thinks characteristic of the genius of the people, who are
fond of magnificent buildings. The same writer remarks,
that their notions of government are “ quite architectural.”
They say " a sovereign may be compared to a hall; his offi-


OF ALL NATIONS:
That is, there is no distinction of rank when parties mingle
promiscuously in vulgar sports. A truth which any one
may verify by a visit to the cock-pit in Westminster.
All is not gold that glitters.
A liar should have a good memory.
All are not Saints that go to the church.-Italian.
Hal.-Non e oro tutto quel che luce.
Although we are negroes we are men.
Sponish.---Aunque negros, somos gente.
Almost and very nigh saves many a lie.
A miss is as good as a mile.
A man of gladness seldom falls into madness.
It is not the gay, cheerful, and light hearted that fall inta
madness, but mostly those of strong and fixed passions. It
is by dwelling too much on one idea, that insanity, when
not constitutional, is produced. Brooding too long over an
imiganary insult or disappointed affection, the mind forms
exaggerated conceptions of the injury it has sustained, and
hence forms conclusions inconsistent with the common
sense of mankind-which is madness. The melancholic,
e proud, and the ambitious, are most liable to this dread
ful calamity. Travel, society, books, any thing which di-
verts the mind from the demon which haunts it before it
has obtained too strong hold of the imagination, are the
best preventives
A soldier, fire, and water, soon make room for themselves,
Italian.
A man may live upon little, but he cannot live upon noth-
ing at all.-Gaelic.
A man knows his companion in a long journey and a small
inn.--Spanish
A man must not spoil the pheasant's tail.-Ital.
A fool always comes short of his reckoning
The half is better than the whole.
A Greek proverb, recommending a person to take half rath-
er thiau risk the expense and uncertainty of a lawsuit to
obtain the whole.
A merry companion on the road is as good as a nag.
A man must plough with such oxen as he has.
A mon is weel o wae as he thinks himself sae.--Scotch.
A mischievous cur must be tied short.--French.
A man is a lion in his ain cause.----Scotch.
We had some proof of this in the conduct of the Reformers,
who in the latey ears defended their .ain cause. There is


OF ALL NATIONS.
23
LAR
ce.
OUS
he
can
Eust
urse
Ask enough and you may lower the price as you list.-
Spanish.
According to that in Latin Oportet iniquum petas ut æquum
feras : you must ask what is unjust to obtain what is just.
We presume it is on this principle the Universal Suffrage
men frame their demands. They do not mean to have all
they ask, but ask a great deal with the view of bating a
little.
A sorrowing bairn was never fat.-Scotch,
A swine fatted hath eat his own bane.
A whetstone can't itself cut, yet it makes tools cut.
As yemak' your bed sae ye maun ly down. -Scotch
A wonder lasts but nine days, and then the puppy's eyes
are open..
A true friend should be like a privy, open in necessity.-
Scotch.
A wild goose never laid a tame egg.-Irish. .
A wilful man should be very wise.Scotch.
A white glove often conceals a dirty hand.-Ital.
A word before is worth two behind.-Scotch.
A word and a stone thrown away do not return.-Spanish.
A word is enough to the wise
B.
Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him.
Scotch.
Beggars must not be choosers.
Spanish. A quien dan no escoge.
Bells call others to church but enter not in themselves.
Better the ill known, thap the gude unknown.-Scotch.
Better be the head of the yeomanry than the tail of the
gentry,
Men love priority and precedence, had rather govern than be
ruled, command than obey, though in an inferior rank and
quality. Julius Cæsar and John Wesley were agreed on
this point : it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Hea-
ven,--to be the first man in a village than the second man
in Rome.
Better come at the latter end of a feast than the beginning
of a fray.
Better keep the de'el out than turn him out.--Scotch.
It is easier to keep out a bad inmate than to get rid of him af-
ter he has once been admitted. It is also used in another
sense, implying that it is better to resist our passione at
as
.
ain
110


24
SELECT PROVERBS
first than after indulgence.
Better late than never.
Ital.-E meglio tarde che mait.
Better one's house too little one day, than too big all the
year.
That is, it is better our house should be too small for one great
entertainment, than too large all the rest of the year. It is
applied to those jolly souls, who, for the sake of one good
“blow out," abridge the comforts of the remaining twelve
months.
Better bend than break.
Better a little fire that warms, nor a meikle that burns.
Scotch.
Better late thrive, as never do well. Scotch.
Beware of vinegar made of sweet wine.--Italian.
Provoke not the rage of a patient man.
Bold and shameless men are masters of the world.
Be a friend to yourself and others will.-Scotch.
Better go about than fall into the ditch. Spanish.
Be the same thing that ye wad be ca'd.-Scotch.
Be patient and you shall have patient children.
Better an empty house than an ill tenant.--Scotch.
Be not a baker if your head be of butterSpanish.
That is, choose n calling adapted to your inclinations and
natural abilities.
Better to be alone than in bad company.-Gaelic.
Between two stools the breech comes to the ground.
French. --Assis entre deux selles le cul a terre.
Better ride on an ass that carries me than a horse that
· throws me.-Spanish.
Biting and scratching got the cat with kitten."
Birds of a feather flock together.
Blaw the wind never so fast it will lower at last.-Scotch.
Building is a sweet impoverishing.
Our forefathers seemed to consider building a very unprofita-
ble speculation. They had many proverbs to the same effect :
He who buys a house ready wrought,
Has many a pin and nail for nought.
The French too say, “A house ready made, and a wife to
make."
The times have altered if one may judge frem the present rage
building in the vicinity of London, and in the country,


' OP ALL NATIONS.
Buy at a market but sell at home.-Spanish.
Beware of enemies reconciled, and meat twice boiled
Spanish.
Beware of a silent dog and still water.
C.
Children dead, and friends afar, farewell.
Child's pig but father's bacon.
Alluding to the promises which parents sometimes make
to their children, and which they fail to perform.
Charity begins at home. .
Children and fools speak the truth.
French-Enfans et fous sont devins.
Changing of words is lighting of hearts.
Claw me and I'll claw you.-Scotch.
Commend me and I'll commend you.
Consider well, who you are, what you do, whence you
come, and wither you go.
Custom is the plauge of wise men, and the idol of fools.
The Spaniards say, “A good or bad custom, the rogue wishes
it to exist." Which shows the influence the knavish part
of society conceive established usage to have in their
prosperity.
Customs,
Though they be ne'er so ridiculous,
Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are followed.-SHAXSP.
Church work goes on slowly.
Can't I be your friend, but I must be your fool too?
Call me cousin, but cozen me not.
Come unca'd, sit unserv'd.--Scotch.
Consider not pleasures as they come, but go,
Count again is na forbidden.-Scotch.
Counsel is to be given by the wise, the remedy by the
rich.
Credit lost is like a Venice glass broken.
Crosses are ladders leading to heaven.
D.
Daughters and dead fish are nae keeping ware. -Scotclia
Day and night, sun and moon, air and light, every one
must have, and none can buy.
Dcaf men go away with the injury


28
SELECT PROVERBS
:
Fie, fie ! horse play is not for gentlemen.
Fiddler's farem-meat, drink, and money.--Scotch.
Fire and water are good servants but bad masters.
First come first served.
French-Qui premier arrive au moulin, premier doit moudre.
Feather by feather, the goose is plucked.
Forbidden fruit is sweet.
Ital.-I frutti prohibiti sono i piu dolci.
Fortune sometimes favours those whom she afterwards de
stroys.-. Ital.
Forbid a fool a thing and that he'll do.Scotch.
Forewarned, fore-armed.
Lat.-Præmonitus, præmunitus.
For my own pleasure, as the man strake his wife. Scordia
For that thou can do thyself rely not on another.
For the rose the thorn is often plucked.
Ital:--Per la rosa spesso il spin, se coglie.
Force without forecast is little worth.Scotch,
Foul water will quench fire.
For one day of joy we have a thousand of ennui.
Ital.- Per un di gioia n'habbiamo mille di nioia.
Life, in the opinion of most people, is a melancholy thing, and
I suppose ihis is the reason why go inany resort to violenco
to get rid of it, or are wholly careless about the means to
prolong existence. King relates in the “ Anecdotes of his
Own Times," that he had put the question to many persons
Whether they would wish to live their time over again, ex-
periencing exactly the same good and evil, and that he
never met one who replied in the affirmative. A King af
Arragon said, There were only four things in the world
worth living for,-old wine to drink, old wood to burn, old
books to read, and old friends to converse with. Soloinon
pronounced all these to be vanity-but he was no judge.
For a flying enemy make a silver bridge--Spanish.
An enemy closely pursued may become desperate : despair
makes even the timid and cowardly courageous : a rat with
no means for escape, will often turn upon its assailants.
By all means then let the vanquished have a free course.
Fox's broth which is cold and scalds.-Spanish.
Said of artfuland dissembling persons, who in their behaviour
appear nodest and affable for the purpose of deceiving
others.
Fouls make feasts and wise men eat them.


OF ALL NATIOS.
H.
Ilappy is he whose friends were born before him.
Haste makes waste, and waste makes want, and want
makes strife between the good man and his wife. .
Here's talk of the Turk and of the Pope, but it's my next
neighbour does me harm.
He that will not be counselled can:ot be helped.
He has mickle prayer but little devotion.-Scotch,
He dances well to whom fortupe pipes.—Ital.
He that hath no morey needeth no purse.
He gets a great deal of credit who pays but a small debt.
lial.
He that leaves certainty and sticks to chance, when fools
* pipe he may dance,
He that chastiseth one, amendeth many.
He that hath an ill name is half hanged.
He is poor indeed, that can promise nothing.
He that plants trees, loves others besides himself.
He that would know what shall be, must consider what
hæth been.
He who gives blows is a master, he who gives none is a
dog.
A Bengalese proverb, strikingly expressive of the mean and
degraded state of the people who could use it. It is deri-
ved from the treatment they used to receive from their Mo-
gul rulers, who apswered the claims of their creditors by
a vigorous application of the whip.
He that is warm thinks all are so
Hle's dwindled down from a pot to a pipkin.
He who wants content can't find an easy chair.
He is a good orator who convinces himself.
He who loses money, loses much; he who loses a friend
loses more ; but he who loses his spirits loses all.
Spanish.
He that has no fools, knaves, nor beggars in his family, was
got by a flash of lightning.
· "He who has not bread to spare should not keep a dog..
Spanish,
lle hath feathered his nest, he may flee when he likes.
Scotch.
He who depends on another, dines ill and sups worse..
He sits full still who has riven breeks.Scotch


SELECT PROVERBS
Those who are guilty themselves are often a little shy in ex-
posing the guilt of others. It took its rise from the Earl of
Angus, who being in an engagement, and wounded, staid
till all his men were drest, and then told them he was
wounded himself by repeating the proverb.
He knows little of a palace.--Spanish.
That is, he is soon put out of countenance.
He who rides bebind another does not travel when he
- pleases.--Spanish.
He who peeps through a hole may see what will vex bim.
He that licks honey from thorns pays too dear for it.
Hand over head, as men took the covenant.--Scotch.
Alluding to the manner in which the covenant, so famous in
Scotish history, was violently taken by above sixty thou.
sand persons about Edinburgh, in 1638; a novel circum-
stance at that time, though afterwards paralleled by the
French in voting by acclamation.
He who laughs too much has the nature of a fool; he who
laughs not at all has the nature of an old cat.
He came safe from the East Indies, and was drowned in
, the Thames.
He that cheats me anes shame fa' him; if he cheats me
twice shame fa' me.--Scotch.
He who doth his own business, defileth pot his fingers.
Ital. Qui fa le fatti suoi, non s'embratta le mani.
He that will steal a pin will steal a better thing.
He who has but one coat cannot lend it.--Spanish.
He who commences many things finishes only a few.---
Ital.
He has fallen out of the frying-pan into the fire.
He who despises his own life is master of that of others.
Ital.--E padrone della vita altrui, chi la sua sprezza.
" What shall he fear, who doth not fear death !"-SCHILLER.
He that has one sheep in the flock will like all the rest the
better for it.--Scoich.
Spoken when we have a son at a particular school, uni-
versity or society, and we wish the prosperity of these re-
Bpective bodies on his account.
He must needs run whom the devil drives.
He had need rise betimes, that would please every body.
He had need have a long spoon that sups kail with the
de'el.--Scotch.


OF ALL NATIONS.
,33
He loses his thanks who promises and delays.
He that would hang his dog, first gives out that he is mad.
He was scant o' news that tauld his father was hang'd.com
Scotch.
He who would have pleasure and pain must begin to
scratch himself.-Spanish.
He that stays in the valley shall never get over the hill.
He that invented the maiden first hanselled it...Scotch.
That is, got the first of it. The maiden, is that well-known
beheading machine, which gave such a scarecrow aspect
to the French revolution. The proverb is applied to one
who falls a victim to his own ingenuity ; the artificer of
his own destruction. The inventor was James, Earl of
Morton, who, for some years governed Scotland, and after-
wards suffered by his own invention. D'Israeli remarks
the singular coincidence, that the same fate was shared
by the French surgaon, Guillotine, who revived it,--both
victims to the anarchy of the times.
He goes not out of his way who goes to a good inn,
He would fain fly, but wants feathers.
Hell and Chancery are always open,
He who does not kill kogs will not get black puddings..
Spanish.
It is usual in Spain, when they kill a hog to make black pud.
dings, to present their neighbours with some. The poor
man without a hog receives few of these presents.
He who follows his own advice must take the consequen-
ces.--Spanish
He who serves is not free.
Spun.-Quien sirve no es libre.
He commands enough that obeys a wise man.
He who sows brambles must not go barefoot.-Spanish.
He that will not look before him must look behind him...
Gaelic.
He who serves a bad inan sows in the market.--Spanis.
He that seeks trouble, it were a pity he should miss item
Scolch.
He has more business than English ovens at Christmas.-
Italian.
closer intercourse formerly existed between our country
and Italy than France. In the reign of Elizabeth and James
xhe First, great numbers of Italians travelled here, and
were resident on commercial concerns; which accounts for


SELECT PROVERBS
the number of Italian proverbs relating to this country.
The foregoing could only have arisen from the observa-
tion of our domestic habits : “ Our pie-loving gentry,'
says D’Israeli, “ were notorious ; and Shakspeare's folio
was usually laid open in the great balls of our nobility to
entertain their attendants, who devoured at once shak-
speare and their pastry. Some of these volumes have
come down to us, not only with the stains, but enclosing
even the identical PIE CRUSTs of the Elizabethan age!»
He gives one knock on the hoop, another on the barrel.-
Ital.
That is, he speaks now to the purpose, now on matters extra-
neous.
He that reckons without his host must reckon again.
He that cannot pay let him pray. '
He that would live in peace and rest, must hear and see
and say the best.
He gives twice that gives in a trice.
Lat.- Qui cito dat bis dat.
He knows best what good is that has endured evil.
He that lies down with dogs must rise up with fleas.-Itat.
He that waits for dead men's shoes may go long enough
barefoot.
He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the
wolves.
He that will have no trouble in this world must not be
born in it.
He is an ill guest that dever drinks to his host.
He that knows himself best, esteems himself least.
He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
He that hath many irons in the fire some of them will
burn,
He that speaks me fair and loves me not, I'll speak him
fair and trust him not.
He that does you an ill turn will never forgive you.--
Scotch.
He that fears leaves must not come into a wood.
He who eats the meat, let him pick the bone.-Spanish.
He has found a last to his shoe.- Spanish.
That is, he has met with his match. .
· He that wad eat the kernel maun crack the aut.-Scotch,


OF ALL NATIONS.
He that cannot find wherewith to employ himself, let him
buy a ship or marry a wife.-Spanish,
He is worth nae weel that can bide nae wae.-Scotch.
He that ill diil, never good believed.
Lat.--Qui sibi male conscii, alios suspicantur.
He who thinks he knows the most knows the least.-Ital.
He who at twenty does not understand, at thirty does
not know, and at forty is poor, will have a wretched old
age.-Spanish.
He that is ill to himself will be good to nobody-Scotch.
He that licks honey from thorns, pays too dear for it.
" French.
i He who deals with a blockhead has need of much brains.
Spanish.
He that desires to sleep soundly, let him buy the bed of a
bankrupt.-Spanish,
Implying that that description of persons have generally soft no
and luxuriant couches.
He who is well and seeks ill, ff it comes God help him.-
Spanish.
Hide nothing from thy minister, physician, and lawyer.--- ;
Ital.
His brains want no barm to make them work.
Home is home though it be ever so homely.
Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.
ļlopes delayed hang the heart upon tenter hooks.
Honour and ease are seldom bedfellows.
How can the cat help it if th: maid be a fool.
Said when the maid does not set up things securely out of the
cat's way.
Human blood is all of one colour.
If the mountain will not go to Mahomet, let Mahomet go
to the mountain.---Spanish.
If you trust before you try, you may repent before you
die.
If the bed could speak many would blush.
If we have not the world's wealth, we have the world's
ease.---Scotch.
Spoken of those who live happily in a mean condition.


SELECT PROVERBS .
If wishes would bide beggars would ride.
French.-Si souhaits furent vrais pastoreaux seroient rais.
If things were to be done twice, all would be wise.
If all fools wore white caps, we shoulå look like a flock of
geese.
If wise men play the food, they do it with a vengeance.
If you would have a good servant take neither kinsmap
nor a friend.
If a fool have success it ruins him.
- In sleep what difference is there between Solomon and a
fool.
If you want a pretence to whip a dog, it is enough to say
he eat up the frying-pan.
If the child cries let the mother hush it, and if it will not
be hushed she must let it cry.-.-Spanish.
Two students travelling to Salamanca stopped at an inn ;
where they were annoyed by the crying of a child, and
the mother scolding and beating it. At their departure
they wrote the words of the proverb and gave them to the
mother, who was their hostess, as a valuable piece of
advice.
If you say what you have seen you will tell what will
shame you.---Gaclic.
If it can be nae better it is weel it is nae waur.---Scotch.
If it were not for hope the heart would break.
If one's name be up he may lie in bed.
If the sky falls we shall catch larks.---French.
In ridicule of those who talk of doing many things, iſ certais
other things, not likely were to happen.
If you cannot bite never show your teeth,
!ll weeds grow apace. .
Ill got, ill spent.
French---Acquerir mechamment, depenser sottement.
If you wish the dog to follow you, feed him.
I'll not buy a pig in a poke.
The French say, Chat en poche.
If you lie upon roses when young, you'll lie upon thorus
when old. .
If you had had fewer friends, and more enemies, you had
Keep a letter man.


OF ALL NATIONS.
cas!
not
ure
Our friends are often too indulgent in concealing our fail.
ings, and leave the valuable office of making us acquainted
with ourselves to be performed by our enemies. “A true
friend," as the proverb says, "should sometimes venture.
to be a little offensive."
If young men had wit, and old men strength enough all
might be well.
If you would have a thing kept secret, never tell it to any
one; and if you would not have a thing known of you,
never do it.
I wept when I was born, and every day shows why.
I like na to mak a toil o' a pleasure.---Scotch.
I love my friends well, but myself better.
French.---Plus pres est la chair que la chemise.
ull-will never spoke well.---Scotch.
Ill doers, ill deemers.---Scotch
Ill would the fat sow fare on the primroses of the wood.
Gaelic.
I'm no every man's dog that whistle, on me.---Scotch.
In a calm sea every man is a pilot.
In a country of blind people, the one-eyed man is a king.
Spanish.
A little wit, among foolish people, will pass a man for a
great genius. It is applied to those who are tickled with
the adıniration of weak and unworthy persons.
In the forehead and the eye, the lecture of the mind doth
lie.
Lat.---Vultus index animi.
Ina thousand pounds of law there is not an ounce of love.
In giving and taking it is easy mistaking.---French.
It's a wise child That knows its own father.---Homer's
Odyssey.
It is more easy to threaten than to kill.-Italian.
It is a miserable sight to see a poor man proud, and a rich
man avaricious. Ital.
It is too late to complain when the thing is done.-Ital.
It's time to set when the oven comes to the dough.
That is, it is time to marry when the maid woos the map,
It is, better to do well than to say well.--Ital.
It is easy preaching to the fasting with a full belly.--Ital.
It is good to fear the worst, the best will save itself.


33
SELECT PROVERBS
It's an ill horse that will not carry his own provender.
It is easy to take a man's part but the matter is to maintai
it.-Gaelic.
It is an ill cause the lawyer thinks shame o'._Scotch.
It is not easy to straight in the oak the crook that grew in
the sapling.---Gaelic
It's a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor.--Ital.
It is a base thing to tear a dead lion's beard off.
A noble reproach of those who wish to rob the “illustrious
dead” of their laurels.
If the parson be from home, be content with the curate.
It may be necessary sometimes to hold a candle to the
dovil.
It is very hard to share an egg.
It is good going on foot when a man has a horse in his
hand.
It is not the cowl that makes the friar.--Scotch.
Lat ---Cucullus non facit monachum.
It's better to be happy than wise.
It is not much to give a leg to him who gave you the
fowl.-Spanish.
It is dear bought that is bought with prayers.--Italian.
It is right to put every thing to its proper use.--Gaelic.
It's good to cry yule (Christmas ) at other men's cost.
It is a long lane that has no turning.
It is good fishing in troubled waters.
It's too late to spare when the bottom is bare.
It is ill to take breeks off a bare
a S cotch.
It's not good to wake a sleeping lion.
It avails little to the unfortunate to be brave.-Spanish.
It is hard to live in Rome and strive against the Pope.-
Scotch.
It is ill angling after the net.
It is a bad action that success cannot justify.
I love to stand aloof from Jove and his thunderbolts.
I'll make a shift, as Macwhid did with the preaching.
Scotch.
Macwhid was a knowing countryman, and a great stickler
for the king and the church. At the Restoration, clergy.
men being scarce, he was asked if he thought he could
preach; he acswered that he could make a shift; upon
which he was ordained, and got a living.


OF ALL NATIONS.
he
I myself had been happy, if I had been unfortunate in time.
It is an ill cause that none dare speak in.-Scotch,
I cannot sell the cow and have the milk.-Scotch.
It is an ill battle where the devil carries the colours.
It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.
It is not the burthen, but the over burthen that kills the
beast.-Spanish.
If pride were an art there would be many teachers.
Italian.
It is ill to bring out of the flesh what is bred in the bone.
---Scotch.
It is a good sport that fills the belly.--Scotch.
It is not an art to play, but it is a very good art to leave
off play.-Italian.
It is too much for one good man to want.
Italy to be born in, France to live in, and Spain to die in.
I am not sorry that my son loses, but that he will have bis
revenge.-Spanish.
It is the infatuation of gaming, that losers are always the most
eager to play on. À wish to recover their lost money, or,
as it is technically called, have their revenge," tempts
them to persevere, till they are involved in ruin and despair.
Hence the proverb.
I will give you a crown a piece for your lies, if you will
let me have them all.
I was well, would be better, took physic, and here I am.
Written on a man's tomb-stone.
Jokin with hands are jokes of blackguards.
Span.--Brulas de manos, brulas de villanos.
Intimating that pugilism and other vulgar amusements are
ungentlemanly.
Just as it falis, quoth the wooer to the maid.--Scotch.
Kelly gives a ludicrous account of the origin of this saying.
A courtier went to woo a maid; she was dressing supper
with a drop at her nose ; she asked him if he would stay all
night, he answered, Just as it falls : meaning, if the drop
fell among the meat he would be off; if it fell by, he would
stay.
Judge not of a ship as she lies on the stocks,
Ital.--Non giudicar la nave, stando in terra:


SELECT PROVERBS
K.
Keep yourself from the anger of a great man, from the
tumult of a mob, from a man of ill fame, from a widow
that has been thrice married, from a wind that comes
in at a hole, and from a reconciled enemy.
Keep your purse and your mouth close.
Keep no more cats than will catch mice.
Kindness will creep when it cannot go.--Scotch.
Kill the lion's whelp, thou'lt strive in vain when he's
grown.
L.
Lawyers' houses are built on the heads of fools.
Lawyers' gowns are lined with the wilfulness of their cli-
ents.
Lawyers' don't love beggars.
There is enough here one would think to deter the most ob-
stinate litigant from resorting unnecessarily to the legal
profession. So far as my observation has extended, I cer-
tainly do not blame the lawyers more than their clients.
In a state of nature, man is naturally a “pugnacious ani-
mal;" in a civilized state, he seems as naturally a litigious
one. The real defect, however, is in “ the glorious uncer-
tainty of the law” itself; which, by some curious property,
possesses the double power of repulsing and attracting its
vietims. While, in the arrogance of lawvers and solicitors--
in the delay and anxiety of waiting the issue of suits---and
the enormous expense attending them there is enough to de-
ter any one from going to law the law itself creates the
necessity by its uncertainty, and the necessity we are con-
stantly under of appealing to its contradictory and ever-
varying decisions, to ascertain our rights and properties.
Let not your tongue cut your throat.---Arabic.
Let them fry in their own grease.
Lean liberty is better than fat slavery.
Learning makes a man fit company for himself,
Leave a jest when it pleases you best.
Spanish.-A la burla dexarla quando mas agrada.
Bacon observes, “He that has a satirical vein, as he maketh
others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of others
memory.”
Let them laugh that win.
Give losers leave to speak and wirmers leave to laugh, for if
you do not they will take it. The French say, Rira bien
qui rira le dernier : He laughs well who laughs the last,


OF ALL NATIONS.
Let every man praise the bridge he goes over.
Let him not look for me at home, who can meet me in the
· market-place.--Spanish.
Recommending persons to keep their domestic establishments
free from intrusion, especially when they have places set
apart for public business.
Letters blush not.
Less of your courtesy, and more of your coin.
Like the tailor of Campillo, who worked for nothing and
found thread. Spanish.
Like master, like man.
French.-Tel maitre tel valet.
Like the squire of Guadalaxara, who new nothing in the
morning of what he had said at night.-Spanish
Like a collier’s sack, bad without, worse within,--Spanish
Said to a person of a mean appearance, with a bad heart.
Life without a friend, death without a witness.-Spanish,
Like the dog in the manger, he will neither do nor let do.
Little and often fills the purse - Italian.
Little said is soon mended, and a little gear is soon spend-
ed_Scotch.
Like author, like book.
The proverb ought to have been more precise, and specified.
what description of authors. Poets, who write from feel-
ing, their works may be a tolerable transcript of their
racters. But feelings are variable they change with the
pressure of the atmosphere or the fluctuation of interest,
and of course, the productions of this class are only the
index of their minds under particular circumstances,
With respect to political scribes, the proverb is still less
applicable. If we take up the works of this genus, we
find them at one period of their lives flaming aristocrats :
at another, raving democrats, and vice versa. What ought
we to infer of them ? that their characters have changed
with their books ? or is it only their writings which have
varied with their interests? We fear it is only the philoso-
phers the rule will apply to. When we meet with a clever
book on chemistry or mathematics, we may be pretty sure
the writer is a chemist or mathematician. The fact is,
these men write not on themselves, but on nature. Hence
the difference; angles and alkalies are constant, but man is
an animal very changeable.
Little strokes fell great oake.


SELECT PROVERBS
Name not a rope in his house that banged himself.
Nae great loss but there is some gain.--Scotch.
Nothing venture, nothing have.
Never scald your lips in other folk's broth.
Never quit certainty for hope.--Scotch.
Neither beg of him who has been a beggar, nor serve him
who has been a servant.--Spanish.
Neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring.
Need makes the old wife trot.
French ---Besoign faite vielle trotter.
Never too old to learn.
Nine tailors make but one man.
Nits will be lice.
* A coarse, but descriptive proverb of Oliver Cromwell's, ex-
pressive of the contempt he felt for some of his mean and
troublesome coadjutors.--D'ISRAELI.
No pot is so ugly as not to find a cover.--- Italian,
Nothing so bad as not to be good for something.
No smoke without some fire.
No condition so low, but may have hopes ; none so high,
but may have fears.
None is a fool always, every one sometimes.
No shoemaker beyond his last.
It is related of Apelles that he exposed publicly'to the Greeks
one of his finest paintings, the • Trojan Shepherd,' solici-
ting their opinion on its merits, A shoemaker found fault
with the sandal which the artist instantly corrected. The
fool, puffed up with conceit, then attempted to make a ridi-
culous display of all he knew, and in a loud tone censured
the finest part of the picture ; but Apelles turning "aside
with contempt, said, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, the words of
the proverb, It is applied to persons who presume to judge
on subjects foreign to their profession or acquirements.
No man crieth---stinking fish.
None but great men can do great mischief.
Nothing that is violent is permanent.
Nothing is more playful than a young cat, nor more grave
than an old one.
Nobody so like an honest man as an arrant knave.
French.--Rien ne ressemble mieux a un honnete homme,
qu'un fripon.
No joy without annoy.
No fool like an old fool.


OF ALL NATIONS.
45
No jesting with edge tools or with bell ropes.
No man is wise at all times.
French.-Les plus sages ne le sont pas toujours.
No longer pipe no longer dance.
None of you know where the shoe pinches.
The answer of Paulus Æmilius to the relations of his wife,
when they remonstrated with him on his determination to
separate himself from her, against whom no fault could be
alleged.
No receiver, no thief; no penny, no Pater-noster.
No friend to a bosom friend, no enemy to a bosom enemy.
---Scotch.
No alchemy equal to saving.
Nothing so bold as a blind man.---Scotch.
Lat.---Dulce bellum inexpertis.
No grass grows at the market place.
A proverb applied to a certain description of females,
No fault, but she sets a bonnet much to weel.--- Scotch.
That is the servant which makes the wife a little jealous, lest
her good man should be tempted astray.
No smoke withont eome firc.
Novelty always appears handsome.
• Ital. Di novello tutto parbello.
No living man all things can.
No rose without a thorn.
Lat.---Nulla est sincera voluptas.
None can feel the weight of another's burden.
No man ever lost his credit but he who had it not.
Now I have got a ewe and a lamb, every one cries---Wel-
come, Pete !
Of a little take a little.---Scotch.
Of young men die many ; of old men, escape not any.
Of an ill pay-master get what you can, though it be but
a straw.
Oil and truth will get uppermost at last.
Old age is not so fiery as youth; but when once provoked
cannot be appeased.
Old men think themselves cunning.
Old men and far travellers may lie by authority.
Old young, old long.


SELECT PROVERBS
Praise the sea, but keep on land.
Praise without profit, puts little in the pocket.
Gloria quanti libet quid erit, si sola gloria est ?
Prate is prate, but it is the duck that lays the egg.
Praise not the day before night.
Policy goes beyond strength.-French.
Pride goes before and shame follows after.
Pride, perceiving humility honourable, often borrows her
cloak.
Pride will have a fall.
Pour not water on a drowned mouse.
Add not affliction to misery.
Put not a naked sword in mad man's hand.
"Ne puero gladium." For they will abuse it to their own
and other's harm.
Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.
-Scotch.
A bitter sarcasm on those who ascribe the want of success in
life to fortune. Dame Fortune ought long since to have
gone to oblivion, with the rest of the heathen mythology:
her smiles and frowns ought never to be alluded to, except
in verse-never in prose or conversation. What is fre-
quently ascribed to ill-luck, is often nothing more than a
want of foresight, prudence, industry, or perseverance ;
these are the qualities that make men rich, prosperous, and
· happy.
Put off your armour, and then show your courage.
Put a coward to his metal, and he'll fight like the devil.
Quick at meat quick at work.
R.
Raise no more spirits than you can conjure down.
Remove an old tree and it will wither to death.
Remember the reckoning.
A good motto to be inscribed on the mantle-piece of public-
houses, or engraven at the bottom of all porter pots, punch
bowls, and drinking mugs. It would make topers think
of thé“ finish ;' though it would probably displease their
landlords.
Ricħes in the Indies, wit in Europe, pomp among the
Ottomans.--Turkish.
Rome was not built in a day.


OF ALL NATIONS.
S.
Save a thief from the gallows, and he will be the first to
cut your throat.
Satan repruves sin.
Saying and doing are two things.
Say well is good, but do well is better.
Say nothing of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
Sampson was a strong man, yet he could not pay money
before he had it.
Scorning is catching.
Scanderbeg's sword must have Scanderbeg's arm.
A hero of the fifteenth century, who distinguished himself
by the several victories obtained over the Turks. He was
King of Albania, and is said to have been present in twenty-
two battles, and to have killed 2,000 infidels with his own
hands, without receiving only a slight wound. He died at
Lissa, in the Venetian territories, 1467, aged 63. Though
occasionally severe, he was a prince of mild manners, and
great benevolence.
Send not for a hatchet to break open an egg with.
Send your noble blood to market, and see what it will buy wing
Those who pride themselves on their ancestors, have been
ludicrously compared to a potatoe, the best part of which
is under ground. “Virtue alone ennobles.”
"He whose mind
Is virtuous, is alone of noble kind;
Though poor in fortune, of celestial race;
And he commits the crime who call him base."---DRYDEN.
Pride of birth, however, has hardly any place in England;
while talent, industry, perseverance have a fair chance,
when usefully directed, to receive their deserts.
Seven hour's sleep makes a clown forget his design.
Secret joys are like an extinguished candle.--Spanish.
Solitary joy is the most melancholy thing in the world. If
we have any thing to rejoice at, let us rejoice with our
friends and acquaintance. When I get a prize in the lotte.
ry, or my old uncle dies, and leaves me a thousand pounds,
“Then I'll sit down : give me some wine ;
I drink to the general joy of the whole table !
Seek not for a good man's pedigree.
Spanish.-Al hombre bueno no le busquen abolengo,
Seek till you find and you'll not lose your labour.
Seldom seen, soon forgotten.


SELECT PROVERBS
Serve a great man and you will know what sorrow is-
Spanish.
Service is no inheritance.
Set the saddle on the right horse.
Set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the devil.
Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum. Claudian.
Shallow waters make most noise.-Scotch.
Sharp stomachs make short graces.
Shake a bridle over a Yorkshireman's grave, and he'll rise
and steal a horse,
The passion of the people of Yorkshire for horses still con-
tinues, if one may judge from the number and excellence.
of their race-grounds, one of the most celebrated of which
is called Knaves-mire. Whether the old penchant for car-
rying off their favourite beast by night, a-lá-Scot, continues,
we cannot say ; but, in looking among the worthies of the
Criminal Calendar, we certainly do not find a greater pro-
portion of Yorkshiremen executed for horse-stealing, sheep-
stealing, and other rustic offences, than in the other coun-
ties of the kingdom.
Shameless craving must have shameless refusing,
French. A bon demandeur bon refuseur.
Shorter is a draught than a tale.-Gaelic.
This proverbial cut is meant to abridge a tedious tale, or
too long a story.
Short reckonings make long friends.
French.--A vieux comptes, nouvelles disputes.
Sly knavery is too hard for honest wisdom.
Since you know every thing, and I know nothing, pray
tell me what I dreamed this morning.
Silence is consent.
Ital.--Chi tace confessa.
Slander always leaves a slur.
Throw much dirt and some will stick.
Sluts are good enough to make sloven's pottage.
Small rain lays a great duet.
Some are wise and some are otherwise.
Some good things I do not love; a good long mile, goock
small beer, and a good old woman.
Sorrow and an evil liſe make soon an old wife.
Sorrow and ill weather cometh unsent for -- Scoich,
Soon hot, sonn cold.
!


OF ALL NATIONS.
Soon ripe, soon rotten.
Lat.-Cito maturum, cito putridum.
Spare to speak and spare to speed.
Store is no sore.
Stars are not seen by sun shine.
Surgeons must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a
lady's hand.
Success makes a fool seem wise.
Sudden trust brings sudden repentance.
Such as the tree is, such is the fruit.
T.
Tailors and authors must mind the fashion.
Take heed of an ox before, an ass behind, and a monk on
all sides -Spanish.
Take heed you find not that you do not seek.-Italian.
Take time wbile time is, for time will away.--Scotch.
Tales of Robin Hood are good enough for fools.
Talk of the war but do not go to it.-Spanish.
Tell me with whom thou goest, and I'll tell thee what
thou doest.
Tell a tale to a mare and she'll let a f . French.
If you discourse on subjects above the capacity of your hear-
·ers, or foreign to their pursuits in life, you will be cither
laughed at, or not listened to.
That is not good language which all understand not.
That city cannot prosper where an ox is sold for less than
a fish.
As was the case with ancient Rome at the commencement of
her decline. It alludes to the state of luxury which usual-
ly precedes the downfal of nations. *
That which will not make a pot, may make a pot-lid.
That is a prodigious plaister for so small a sore.
That is well spoken, ihat is well taken.
That pilgrim is base that speaks ill of his staff.--Spanish.
That sheep has his belly full which butts his companion.
Spanish
Those who have ate and drank freely are more gay and wan-
ion than when cool and fasting.
That is but an empty purse that is full of other folks?
money,


SELECT PROVERBS
That which has its value from fancy is not very valuable.
That which covers thee, discovers thee.
Spanish.--Quien te cubre te descubre.
Intimating, that external splendour and wealth, without me.
rit, only more expose the unworthiness of the possessor.
That must be true which all men say.
The first pig, but the last whelp of the litter is best.
There is no fishing for trout in dry breeches.--Spanish.
The tears of a whore, and the oaths of a bully, may be
put in the same bottle.
The chickens are the country's, but the city eats them.
The biggest horses are not the best travellers.
The ass that carries wine drinks water.
The cow knows not the value of her tail till she has lost it.
The difference is wide that the sheets will not decide.
The cat is in the dove house.-Spanish.
Said when a man has got amongst the women.
The horse thinks one thing and his rider another.
Mandeville, author of the “ Fable of the Bees," remarks,
that if the horse hand the gift of reason, he, for one, should
be sorry to be its rider. He applies the same principle to
the education of the working classes, thinking that the
diffusion of knowledge among them would render them less
docile to their employers, and more impatient under the
hardships of their situation. A vile and erroneous senti-
ment, which has been entirely confuted.
The frying pan said to the kettle, Avaunt, black brows."
The crutch of Time does more than the club of Hercules.
The brains of a fox will be of little service if you play
with the paw of a lion.
The complaints of the present times is the general com-
plaint of all times.
The golden age never was the present age.
The eye that sees all things else, sees not itself.
The little wimble will let in the great auger.
The first of the nine orders of kpaves is he that tells his
errand before he goes it.
The Italianised Englishman is a devil incarnate.--Italian.
A pretty description of our travelling countrymen, from
their hosts.
The prick of a pin is enough to make an empire insipid
for a time.


OF ALL NATIONS.
The wise hand does not all the foolish tongue speaks.
The pleasures of the great are the tears of the poor.
The mouse does not leave the cat's house with a belly
full.-Spanish.
When a person is in fear, he is in no state for enjoyment.
The child says nothing but what he heard at the fire side.
The fox is very cunning, but he is more cunning that
catches him.--- Spanish. -
The devil was so fond of his children that he plucked out
their eyes.---Spanish.
A reproof to parents who indulge their children to the inju-
ry of their health and education.
The dog wags his his tail not for you, but for the bread.-
Spanish.
The lower mill-stone grinds as well as the upper.
The more worship, the more cost.
French.--Les honneurs cotent.
The hoz never looks up to him that threshes down the
acorns.
The eyes, the ears, the tongue, the hands, the feet, all fast
in their way.
The soldier is well paid for doing mischief.-Italian.
The reserve is engaged.
A proverbial expression of the Romans, for their last stake
at play, and quoted by D'lsraeli as characteristic of the
military habits of that people.
The absent party is always faulty.
The highway is never about.
The Italian is wise before he undertakes a thing, the Ger-
man while he is doing it, and the Frenchman when it
is over,
The worst pig often gets the best pear.
The first men in the world were a gardener, a grazier,
and a ploughman.
The devil rebukes sin.
French.-Le renard preche aux poules.
The Englishman weeps, the Irishman sleeps, but the
Scotchman goes while he gets it.
The submitting to one wrong brings on another. Spanish,
The singing-man keeps a shop in his throat.-Spanish.


54
SELECT PROVERBS
The more the merrier, the fewer the better cheer.
The devil wipes his tail with the poor man's pride.
The remedy of to-morrow is too late for the evil of to-day.
-Spanish.
The ox when weariest treads surest.
Those that are slow are sure.
The mouse that has but one hole is easily taken.
The pitcher does not go so often to the water but it comes
home broken at last.
The devil is good when he is pleased.
The still sow drinks all the draff.-Dutch.
The barber learns to share on the orphan's face.
Arabic.
In capite orphani discit chirurgus.
The fairest rose at last is withered.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The weakest must go the wall.
The better workman, the worse husband.
There are as many exceptions in this proverb, as to the
French saying, “ Bon poete, mauvais homme." A good
poet, a bad man.
The whole ocean is made up of single drops. ·
The usurer and spendthrift are cat and mouse.
The way to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem.“
The butcher looked for his knife when he had it in his :
mouth,
The disease a man dreads, that he dies of.-Spanish.
The dearest child of all is that which is dead.
The master's eye makes the horse fat.
A fat man riding upon a lean horse, was asked how it came
to pass that he was so fat and his horse so lean ? “Be-
cause," says he," I feed myself, but my servant feeds my
horse."
The last drop makes the cup run over.
The sweetest wine makes the sharpest vinegar.
Lat.-Corruptio optimi est pessima.
The friar preached against stealing when he had a pud-
ding in his sleeve.
The request of a lord is a kind of a force upon a map.
The great thieves punish the little ones.'
The informer is the worst rogue of the two.


SELECT PROVERBS
The man that is happy in all things, is more rare than the
Phænix.--Italian. .
The remedy is worse than the disease.--Scotch.
The wise man knows he knows nothing, the fool thinks
he knows all.-Italian.
The tears of the congregation are the praises of the minis-
ter.-Italian.
he eyes serve for ears to the deaf.-Italian.
The more you stroke pussy's back, the higher she raises
her tail.- Gaelic.
The wolf is always said to be more terrible than he is.
Italian.
The potter is hostile to the potter.
A proverbial verse of great antiquity; It is in Hesiod's
“Works and Days," intimating the envy and jealousy of
rival workmen and manufacturers. It answers to the Gae.
lic proverb, “One dog is better by another dog being hang-
ed."
-
The burden which was thoughtlessly got must be patient-
ly borne.-Gaelic.
The habit does not make the priest.-Italian.
The second blow makes the fray.
The oldest man that ever lived died at last.-Gaelic.
The mother reckons well, but the infant reckons better.---
Spanish.
Applied to pregnant ladies, who are often in error in their
reckoning, when the appearance of the child settles the
account.
The book of May-bees is very broad.-Scotch.
Three removes are as bad as a fire.
There is more hope in a fool than a man wise in his own.
conceit.
There is no disputing of tastes, appetites, and fancies.
There is no banquet but some dislike something in it.
There is something in it, quoth the fellow, when he drank
dish-clout and all.
There is none so deaf as those that will not hear.-Ital.
There is scarcely any inconvenience without some compen-
sating advantage, and we dare say, there are those who
have found an occasional advantage in being a little hard
of hearing. Sir Joshua Reynolds did :---
To coxcombs averse, yet most civily steering,
When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing


OF ALL NATIONS,
57
ink
TO
When they talked of their Raphaels, Corregios, and stuff,
He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff,'-GOLDSMITH.
There would be no ill language, if it were not ill taken.
They that hide can find.
They whip the cat if the mistress does not spin..--Spanish. .
The innocent often suffer for the negligence and indolence of
others.
They are scarce of horse-flesh where two and two ride
on a dog.
They need much whom nothing will content.
They shall have no more of our prayers than we of their
pies, quoth the vicar of Layton.
They love me for little that hate me for naught.---Scotch.
There's nothing agrees worse than a proud mind and a
beggars purse.
There is no quenching of fire with tow.
There is no great banquet but some fare ill.
There could be no great ones, if there were no little ones.
There is never enough where nought leaves.--- Italian.
There is no general rule without exceptions.
There's reason in roasting of eggs.
They that sell kids and have no goats, how came they by
them?
A delicate allusion to those who live high, without any visi.
ble means of subsistence.
Things unreasonable are never durable.--Italian.
Though the sun shines, leave not your cloak at home.
Three may keep counsel if two be away.-Scotch.
Thistles are a salad for asses.--- Scotch.
Think much, speak little, and write less.
Though old and wise, yet still advise.
Thinking is very far from knowing.
Though all men were made of one metal, yet were they
not all cast in the same mould.
Though the cat winks she is not blind.
Threatened folks live long.
Thus it is we are ruined, husband ; you are good for little,
and I for less.---Spanish.
Time and tide stay for no man.
Time is a file that wears and makes no noise.
Three things cost dear: the caresses of a dog, the love of
a mistress, and the invasion of an host.


OF ALL NATIONS.
. 53
.
Trust not the praise of a friend, nor the contempt of an
enemy.-Italian.
Two blacks make no white.---Scotch.
Two eyes are better than one.---French.
Two of a trade seldom agree.
Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs
and a bene, never agree in one.
Two things a man should never be angry at;what he
can help, and what he cannot help.
U. V.
Under my cloak I'll kill the king.-Spanish.
Meaning (that, as a man's thoughts cannot be controlled,
he may kill the king in imagination.
Venture a small fish to catch a great one.
Verture not all in one bottom.
· W.
Water run by, will not turn u mill.--Spanish,
Wanton kittens may '
make sober old cats.
We must live by the quick, not by the dead.
We shall be all bald a hundred years hence.--Spanish.
Aye, in less time than that. Really, it is melancholy to re-
flect on the quick vicissitudes in sublunary affairs. Only
think of the strange mutations in this busy metropolis, in
half a century or less. Where will then be the bright eyes
and fair countenances that now fill our streets with life and
gaiety! What will have become of the big wigs and fur,
gowns the counsellors and judges-the orators of St.
Štephen's—the turtle-eating aldermen, the prating common
councilmen, and the Cent-per-cents of Job-alley. The stars
of Almack's, and the blossoms uf St, Giles's, will have
alike faded, or set in endless night. They will all have
gone out “ like a souff," and have been quietly put to bed
with “ a shovel or a spade," and a new generation arisen.
just as vain and bustling as their predecessors. It makes
one's heart ache to think on it, yet so it is,---
“ Time is like a fashionable host,
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,
But, with his arm out-stretch'd as he would fly,
Grasps the incomer.”
We are all Adam's children, but silk makes the difference.
Weak men and cowards are commonly wily.
'We think lawyers to be wise men, and they know us in
be fools.


OF ALL NATIONS.
61
What is done in the night appears in the day.-Italian.
When the cat is away the nice will play.
Ilal.---Quando la gatta non in casa, i sorici ballano.
When candles are out all cats are gray.
Spanish.---Le noche todos los gatos son pardos.
French.---A nuit tuosles chats sont gris.
Which is the same as the English in both nations; and shows
either, how universal the same proverb is diffused, or how
in different countries the same fact has given rise to the
same observation.
When the wine is in, the wit is out.
When the shoulder of muiton is going it is good to take a
slice.
When rogues fall out, honest men come by their own.
When the horse is stolen the stable door is shut.
The Italians say, “Every ditch is full of your after-wits,"
When a laquey comes to hell the devil locks the gates.
When the barn is full you may thresh before the door.
When you have plenty of money, there is no need of obscuri.
ty, you may live openly, and in society.
When every hand fleeceth, the sheep go naked.
When you are all agreed upon the time, quoth the Vicar,
P'll make it rain.
When two friends have a common purse, one sings and the
other weeps.
When the sun shines, nobody minds him ; but when he
is eclipsed, all consider him.
When good cheer is lacking, our friends will be packing.
When a friend asketh, there is no to-morrow.-Spanish.
When the fox preaches, beware of your geese.
When an ass is among monkeys they all make faces at
him.-Spanish.
When it pleases not God, the saint can do little.--Spanish,
-Italian. -
When every one takes care of himself, care is taken of all.
French.-Quand chacun se mele de son metier, les vaches
sont bien gardees.
“ Self-love and social are the same.”—Pope.
A truth which is daily becoming more apparent, as may be
seen by the recent removal of restrictions of commercial
freedom, and suffering public prosperity to rest on the basis
of individual interest. The same liberal policy will doubt-
less ere long be extended to the freedom of intellect and
opinions.
-
-


SELECT PROVERBS
sch
the
be
Who
Ita
Who
she
With
join
Wisht
Who :
Ital.
This p
on 1
best
it w
next
Kell
cons
It w
and
When all men say you are an ass it is time bray.
When one will not, two can not quarrel.--Spanish.
When the curate licks the knife, it must be bad for the
clerk.--Spanish.
When a peasant is on horseback, he knows neither God
nor any one.--Spanish.
When the heart is full of lust the mouth is full of lies.
When you have attained power and wealth, beware of inso-
lence, pride and oppression.
When the bow is too much bent it breaks.-- Italian.
When sorrow is asleep, wake it not.
When thy neighbour's house is on fire look to thine own.
Lat...Tunc tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet.
Where God hath his church the devil will have his cha-
pel.
Where nothing's to be had, the king must lose his rights.
Where love fails, we spy all faults.
Where nothing is, a little doth ease.
Where the hedge is lowest, men commonly leap over.
French.---Chacun joue au roi despouille.
Where the carcass is, there the ravens will collect to.
gether.-Gaelic.
Where a man is not known when he speaks, he is not be-
lieved.-Italian.
Where men are well used they'll frequent there.
While there's life there's hope.
While the grass grows the steed starveg.--Italian.
Who so deaf as they that will not hear.
Who goes to the wars eats ill, drinks worse, and sleeps on
the ground.-Italian.
Who has land, has var.
French.-Qui terre a, guerre a.
Who wishes to burn the house of his neighbour, ought to
think of his own.-Italian.
Who looks not before finds himself behind.
Who robs a scholar, robs the public.--Spanish.
It is a horrid sin to rob a scholar; a thousand times worse
than sacrilege. They have seldom much to be robbed of,
and to take from them the little they have is cruelty beyond
endurance, Besides, literary men are strictly the servants
of the public, who live by contributing to its amusement
and instruction. Hence the proverb; for be who robs ?
as h
well
answ
ever
Thod
first
Who a
With
the
Let us
forta
Wint


OF ALL NATIONS. . 63
scholar of his money, or the implements of his trade“ robs
the public,” by depriving it of the means by which it may
be accommodated."
Who hunts two hares, leaves one and loses the other.
Ital.
Who can help sickness ? quoth the drunken wife, when
she fell into the gutter.
With cost, good pottage may be made out of the leg of a
joint stool.
Wishes never can fill a sack.
Who shall hang the bell about the cat's neck ?
Ital. --Appicior chi vuol' il sonaglio alla gatta.
This proverb is used in must European countries, and founded
on the fable of the mice, who hold a consultation on the
best means to be appriood of the cat's coming; when
it was determined to hang a bell about her neck. But the
next question was who would do it? and hence the proverb.
Kelly relates, that the nobility of Scotland entered into
conspiracy against one Spence, the favourite of Janies III.
It was proposed to go in a body to Stirling, to take Spence
and hang him, and then to offer their service to the King
as his natural counsellors. The Lord Gray says, “It is
well said, but who will bell the cat ?" The Earl of Angus
answerd," I will bell the cat ;" which he effected and was
ever afterwards called “ Archibald Bell Cat"
Who shall keep the keepers ?
Who hath aching teeth hath ill tenants.
Who loses his due gets no thanks.
Who has not a good tongue ought to have good hands.
Who dangles after the great is the last at table, and the
first at blows. Ital.
Who are you for? I am for him whom I get most by.
An appropriate motto for the independant electors of Gation,
Appleby, Old Sarum. and a score more rotten boroughs.
Without pains no gains.
Wit once bought is worth twice taught.
With Latin, a horse, and money, thou wilt pass through
the world.--Spanish.
Let us have the two last and we will be content to jog on com-
fortably ; leaving the Latin to the Church and the doctors,
Wit is folly, unless a man hath the keeping of it.
Wine in the bottle doth not quench thirst.--- Italian.
Winter finds out what summer conceals.


SELECT PROVERBS
You'll
You ca
You a
whe
You ca
Young
You ha
You m
That is
blood
Butt
huma
then
You m
a w
You sa
Without a friend the world is a wilderness.
Whoever is the fox's servant must bear up his tail.--
Gaelic.
Wolves may lose their teeth but not their nature.
Words are but wind, but seeing is believing.
Write with the learned, but speak with the vulgar.
Words from the mouth only die in the ears, but words
proceeding from the heart stay there. - Italian.
Y.
You may dance on the ropes without reading Euclid.
Should any one dispute this truth, he had better go to Ast-
ley's amphitheatre, or Sadler's Wells. He will there see
philosophy reduced to practice ; and men who never heard
of the centre of gravity, or the laws of mot:72, verifying
all these principles, and, in a twenty five feet fing, illustra-
ting the laws which keep the planets in their orbits.
There is nothing, in fact, more surprising than the feats
of balancing and equestrianship we witness in our places
of public amusement ; they are as interesting to the philo-
sopher as the clown, being founded on the most mysterious
and important principles in nature. Take, for example, the
feat we lately saw at Astley's, in a piece called the “Fly.
ing Shepherd." The horse was going round the circle
with incredible speed, while the intrepid equestrian leaned
inwards, with his head almost touching the ground. The
speed of the horse, in this case, kept the rider in his peril-
ous position, for had the horse slackend his pace the equi-
librium would have been destroyed, and the rider precipita-
ted to the ground. He was balanced by what mathemati-
cians call the centrifugal and centripetal forces, of which, I
dare say, the performer had never heard a word. It is on
the same principle, we see crown-piecs, drinking-glasses,
and other things, balanced ; the whirling motion they give
them which astonishes the uninitiated, is the very means by
which the feat is accomplished. After all, the perfection
they attain, by mere dint of practice, without the least ac-
quaintance with the principles of their art, is astonishing.
r philosophy far excels the philosophy of the closet,
for it is real and practical, while the other is mere theory.
Your main fault is, you are good for nothing.
Yielding is sometimes the best way for succeeding.-Ital.
You look at what I drink and not at my thirst.-Spanish..
You are a good hand to help a lame dog over a stile.
You will never be revenged of a man of cool and regular
habits.--Spanish.
He is always too much upon his own guard.
You ha
You ca
You sif
Young
You gì
You m
You w
Spare
The pr
a fryi
You com
You ca
Younds
men
You ca
Inst-


OF ALL NATIONS.
65
65
“Calmness is great advantage , he that lets
Another chafe, may warm him at the fire,
Mark all his wanderings, and enjoy his frets;
As cunning fencers suffer heat to tire”
You'll never be mad, you are of so many minds. be
You cannot make velvet of a sow's ear.
You are so cunning, you know not what weather it is
when it rains.
You could make broth, but you have no beef.
You need not get a golden pen to write upon dirt.
You have found a mare's nest and laugh at the eggs.
You must look at the horse and not at the mare.-Spanish.
That is, for the breed. It is used to show, that rank and
blood must be on the side of the male in family alliances.
But this is all exploded vanity ; since science teaches that
human bloood is of the same colour, in males and females,
the noble and the peasant.
You may be a wise man, and yet not know how to make
a watch., .
You saw out your tree before you cut it down.
You have always a ready mouth for a ripe cherry.
You can never make a good shaft of a pig's tail.
You sift night and day and get nothing but bran.
Young cocks. love no coops.
You give notable counsel, but he is a fool that takes it.
You must ask your neighbour if you shall live in peace.
You will find it out when you want to fry the eggs.-
Spanish.
The proverb has its origin from a thief who, having stolen
a frying-pan, was met by the master of the house as he was
going out, who asked him his business there ; he answered,
* You will know when you go to fry the eggs."--It is appli-
cable to cases where we only discover the value of a thing
when it is waated.
You come a day after the fair.--Scotch.
You cannot tell a pie-bald horse till you see him.-Gaelic.
You cannot have more of the cat than the skin.
You cannot fair weel, but yo cry roast meat.-Scoich.
Young men think old men fools, and old men know young
men to be so.
You cannot catch old birds with chaff.
Lot ---Annosa vulpes non capitur laqueo.


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
67
An ill style is better than a lewd story.
A knave discovered is a great fool.
As good be hanged for an old sheep as a young lamb.
If you will be a knave ; be not so in a trille, but in something
of value. Kelly, in illustration of this proverb, has the fol-
lowing anecdoto: A presbyterian minister had a son who
was made arch deacon of Ossory; when this was told to
his father he said, “ if my son will be a knave, I am glad
that he is an arch-knave.' It is a false and mischievous pro-
verb to those foolish enough to believe it.
A wicked companion invites us all to hell.
A man is not good or bad for one action.
We ought to balance the good with the bad, and also the
length of time a man has lived, to form a true estimate of
his character. Polybius, the Greek historian, has an obser-
vation to the same effect : “ There is no reason,” says he,
“ why we should not sometimes blame, and sometimes com-
mend, the same person ; for as none are always right, nei-
ther is it probable that they should be always wrong."
A vicious man's son has a good title to vice.
A lie begets a lie till they come to generations.
A good life keeps off wrinkles.--Spanish.
An old goat is never the more reverend for his beard.
A wise man's thought walks within him, a fool's without
him.
A great reputation is a great charge.
A fool may chance to put something in a wise man's head,
A little time may be enough to hatch a great deal of mis-
chief
A bad man has a blot in his escutcheon.
A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth.-Italian.
A horse is neither better nor worse for his trappings.
All happiness is in the mind.
Happiness is not in a cottage, nor a palace, nor in riches,
nor in poverty, nor in wisdom, nor in ignorance, nor
in active nor in passive life. There is evil as well as
good in all these." It is certainly in the mind, but the diffi-
culty is in getting it to dwell there An old monk has left
the following maxims to pass through life comfortably:
Never speak ill of your superiors.
Perform every one's office according to his quality.
Suffer the mad world to go its own way, for it wills to go its
own way.


70 RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
lous cases-are te observe the laws, we clearly ought to
require stronger testimony to establish their guilt than in-
nocence.
Be merry and wise.
Buffoonery and scurrility are the corruption of wit, as
knavery is of wisdom.
Bought wit is best, but may cost too much.
Believe only half of what you hear of a man's wealth and
goodness.--Spanish.
Blushing is virtue's colour.
C.
Cheer up, God is where he was.
Common fame is seldom to blame.
Constant occupation prevents temptation.--Italian.
Courage ought to have eyes as well as arms.
Common sense is the growth of all countries.
Confession without repentance, friends without faith,
prayer without sincerity, are mere loss.-Italian.
Content is the philosopher's stone, that turns all it touches
into gold.
“If ever I more riches did desire
Than cleanliness and quiet do require;
If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat,
With any wish so mean as to be great;
Continue, Heaven, still from me to remove
The humble blessings of the life I love."--COWLEY.
"Is happiness your point in view,
(I mean the intrinsic and the true,)
She nor in camps nor courts resides;
Nor in the humble cottage hides :
Yet form'd alike in every sphere,
Who finds Content, will find her there."-Gay.
Criminals are punished that others may be amended.
Ital.
D.
Death has nothing terrible in it but what life has made so.
Dissembled holiness is double iniquity.
Do not trust nor contend, nor borrow nor lend, and you
will live in quiet.-Spanish.
Disputations leave truth in the middle, and party at both
ends.
Do not give a bribe, nor lose your right.--Spanish,


RELIGION; VIRTUE, AND LEARNING. 71
Do not do evil to get good by it, which never yet happen-
ed to any.
Do you know what charity is : forgive if you bear ill-
will, and pay what you owe.-Spanish
- Do what thou ought, come what can.--French.
Do weel an' doubt na man; do ill, and doubt a' men.
Scotch.
Drunkenness is nothing else but voluntary madness.
Drunkenness is an egg from which all vices are hatched.
Drunkenness turns a man out of himself, and leaves a
beast in his room.
Drunkenness is a pair of spectacles, to see the devil and
all his works.
Dying is as natural as living.
- E.
Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes
him.
Education polishes good natures, and corrects bad ones,
Evil gotten, evil spent.
Lat.-Male parta, male dilabuntur.
Every one's censure is first moulded in his own nature.
Enjoy your little while the fool seeks for more.--Spanish,
Evil communications corrupt good manners.
A very common exercise this of our school-pens, but a very
ancient adage. It is quoted by St. Paul, and is found in a
fragment of Menander, the comic poet. It is uncertain whe-
ther St. Paul quotes the Grecian poet, or only repeats some
popular saying of his time.
Every vice fights against nature.
Envy shoots at others and wounds herself.
Experience is the mother of science.
Spanish.---La experencia es madre de la sciencia.
Example teaches more than precept.
Experience without learning does more good than learu-
ing without experience.
Experience teaches fools, and he is a great one that will
not learn by it.
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in bo
other.


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING. 73
fle that is drunk is gone from home.
He dies like a beast who has done no good while he lived.
He who has no shame has no conscience----Spanish.
He is the best gentleman who is the son of his own deserts.
He that shows his passion tells his enemy where he may
hit him.
He who avoids the temptatiou avoids the sin.--Spanish.
He that knows useful things, and not he that knows many
things, is the wise man.
He keeps his road well enough who gets rid of bad com-
pany.
He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.
He who resolves to amend has God on his side.
He is handsome that handsomne doth.--Spanish.
He that kills a' map when he is drunk, must be hanged
when he is sober..
He's a puddled stream from a pure sping.
He that swells in prosperity will shrink in adversity,
He preaches well who lives well.
Spanish.--Bien predica quien bien vive.
He that goes to church with an ill intentions, goes to God's
house on the devil's errand.-Spanish.'
Ile that gives to a grateful man puts out to usury.
He distrusts his own faith who often swears.-Italian.
He eats the calf in the cow's belly.--Scotch.
Applied to those who spend their money before it is earned.
Hell is paved with good intentions.
Hell is crowded with ungrateful' wretches,
Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good
works.
Hide nothing from thy minister, physician, nor lawyer...
Italian.
Honesty is nae'pride.-Scotch
Honest inen are soon bound, but you cannot bind a knave.
How can you think yourself the wiser for pleasing fools.
His clothes are worth an hundred pounds, but his wit is
dear at a' groat.
Humility gains often more than pride:-Italiano
Hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue.
Hypocrites are a sort of creature that God never made.
The Spaniards, in their comic way, say' “ It is better to eat
grass and thistles, than to have a hood over the face."


74
RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
If the best man's faults were written on his forehead, it
would make him pull his hat over his eyes.--Gaelic.
If every one would mend one, all would be mended.
Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune.
If the brain sows not corn it plants thistles.
It is altogether ia vain to learn wisdom and yet live foolish-
ly.
If they say you are good, ask yourself if it be true.--
Snartësh.
I know no difference between buried treasure and conceal.
ed knowledge-Italian.
It is a base thing to betray a man because he trueted you.
It is pride and not nature that craves much.
It is good to hear mass and keep house.-Spanish. '
Spoken of those who, under pretence of attending the service
of religion, neglect their domestic duties. I
Ignorance is the mother of devotion.
In conclusion, serve God and do no ill.-Spanish.
A beautifully short sermon, and admirable abridgment of re-
ligion and morality. It is worthy the attention of those
long-winded preachers, who bewilder their hearers with
unintelligible annotations on points of faith, and drowsy
exhortations to moral duties. Do no ill, but all the good
your can, is the perfection of human conduct, and it would
perhaps be as well for society if this sentiment were en-
graven on our public buildings, or simply repeated to the
people, in room of a great deal of the extemporaneous rapt
and stolen goods with which they are now wearied and
perplexed. St. John is said to have indulged in a shorier
sermon than the proverb : when old and infiri, be simply
exhorted his hearers to “ Love one another," which is both
a suinmary of divinity and social duties.
It is always term time in the court of conscience.
It is human to err, but diabolical to perserve.
· It costs more to revenge injuries than to bear them."
It's better to sit with a wise man in prison than a fool in
paradise.--Russian.
It has been the misfortune of many to live too long.
They have outlived their reputation, or done things in the
latter period of their lives unworthy the commencement
of their career.
It is gelf-conceit that makes opinion obstinate,


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AYD LEARNING. 75
I will not change my cottage in possession for a palace in
reversion.
It is as great cruelty to spare all as to spare none.
J.
Jest not with the eye, nor religion,
Job was not so miserable in his sufferings as happy in his
patience.
K.
Keep out of brawls, and you will neither be a pricipal
nor a witness.-- Spanish.
· Knaves imagine nothing can be done without knavery.
Kuavery may serve a turn, but honesty is best at long run.
Honesty is certainly the best of policy. Though there may
be sometim's an apparent advantage in taking a shorter
cut, we always find, in the long run, that fair and upright
dealings are the nearest and surest way to wealth and
happiness. Detected knavery is, undoubtedly, the greatest
of all foolery. While a man pursues an honourable course
all the world is on his side ; when he adopts an insidious,
dishonest one, the laws and all the feelings of society are
against him. Who can doubt then which is the best line
to choose, merely as a matter of prudence. Mr. Hume,
indeed, questioned the truth of the old adage ; but David
had puzzled himself with subtle retinements, in which he
lost all perception of the boundaries between truth and
error. We have a higher authority than Mr. Hume on
this point ; for he was much better acquainted with the
world. Junis, in private note to Woodfall, says, “ After
long experience in the world, I affirm, before God, I never
knew a rogue who was not unhappy."'-- Woodfull's Junius,
vol. i. p. 237.
Knowledge is silver among the poor, gold among the np.
bles, and a jewel among priaces.-Italian.
Knowledge directs practice, yet practice increases knowl.
edge.
Knowledge is no burden.
Knowledge in every state is a grand treasure.
Ilnl.-Scienza in ogni stato"e un grande tesoro.
Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist.
Learning is worse dodged in him, than Jove was in a
thatched house.


76 RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
Learning is a sceptre to some, a bauble to others.
Learn wisdom by the follies of others.-- Italian.
Let another's shipwreck be your sea-mark.
Lordly vices require lordly estates.
Life is half spent before we know what it is.
M.
Make the night night, and the day day, and you will live
happily.-Spanish
( Man proposes, but God dieposes.--Scolch.
Many that are wits in jest are fools in earnest.
Mean men admire wealth, great men glory.
Men's years and their faults are always more than they
· are willing to own.
Men fear death as children to go into the dark.
Mortal man must not keep up immortal anger.
More wisdom and less religion.--Ital.
Most men employ their first years, so as to make the last
miserable.
Most things have two handles; and a wise man takes hold
of the best.
More a man knows the less he believes.
-Nal---Chi piu sa, meno crede.
N.
Nature teaches us to love our friends, religion our enemies.
Necessity hath no law.
Neither praise nor dispraise thyself, thine actions serve
the turn.
Never be weary of well-doing.
No matter what religion a knave or a fool is of,
No religion but can boast of its martyrs.
No rogue like the godly rouge.
No mother is so wicked but desires to have good children.
Italian.
Not God above gets all men's love.
No tyrant can take from you your knowledge.
0.
Obscene words must have a deaf ear.
Of two evils the least is to be chosen.
Oftentimes, to please fools, wise men err.
Old men go to death, but death comes to young men.


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING. 77
One may discern an ass in a lion's skin without spectacles.
Only that which is honestly got, is gaia.
Que ill word asketh another.
One ill example spoils many good precepts.
Ourfatterers are our most dangerous enemies, yet often be
in our bosoms.
Our virtues would be proud, if our vices whipped them
not.
P.
Parnassus has no gold mines in it.
Otway, Butler, Goldsmith, and others of the Old School
certainly did not find any ; but some of our modern! poets
have been more fortunate, and discovered very rich veins
there!
Passiopate men, like feet hounds, overrun the scent,
Patience is a plaster for all sores.
Pen and ink are wit's plough.
Pleasures, while they flatter, sting to death.
Point not at other's spots with a foul finger.
Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the
night.
Prevention is better than cure.
I'ride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more
saucy.
Quick helievers need broad shoulders.
Reason governs the wise man, and cudgels the fool.
Repent a good action if you can.
Religion and language we suck in with our milk.
Reckless youth makes rueful age.-Scotch.
Respect and contempt spoil the world.-Italian.
Religious contention is the devil's harvest.
French. Pendant que les chiens s'entregrondent, le loup
devore la brebis.
Reynard is still Reynard, though he put on a surplice.
We have several proverbs to the same purport, ng “ What is
bred in the bone can never be out of the Besh';" " A young
saint, an old saint; a young devil an old devil." They seem
to have arisen from the general observance, that age is
but a peaty of youth, that youth is only age in miniature,


30 RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
that it shows the necessity of controlling our inclinations,
as even the enjoyments of a king are limited.
The longest life is but a parcel of moments,
The wise man knows the fool, but the fool doth not know
the wise man.--Eastern.
The sickness of the body may prove the health of the soul.
The cross on the breast, and the devil in actions.-Spanish.
The wicked even hate vice in others.
Hal.-Il viti altrui dispiace alli stessi vitiosi.
The Spaniards say, “ Å bad mother wishes good children,"
There cannot be a nobler tribute to virtue than the homage
of the wicked, who secretely admire her precepts, though
the violence of their passions prevents their adopting
them in practice.
The world would finish were all men learned.
Tho best way to see divine light, is to put out thine own
candle,
The hermit thinks the sun shines no where but in his cell.
The wrath of brothers is the wrath of devils.--Spanish.
The offender never pardons.-Italian.
The timid and weak are the most revengeful and impla-
cable.
The loquacity of fools is a lecture to the wise.
T'he example of good men is visible philosophy.
The fool is busy in every one's business but his own
The good paliate a bad action.
Hal.-La buona intenzione scusa'el mal fatto.
The follies of youth are food for repentance in old age.
The devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with
gold, the ambitious with power, the learned by false
doctrine.
The first degree of folly is to think one's self wise ; the next
to tell others so; the third to despise all counsel.
The devil goes shares in gaming
There are as many serious follies as light ones.
The greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plain-
ness.
The most lasting monuments are, doubtless, the paper
monuments.
The noblest remedy of injuries is oblivion.
There is no honour where there is no shame.--Italian..
They ought not to do evil that good may come.


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING.
There is no medicine against death.-Italian.
To read and not to understand, is to pursue and not to
take.--Italian.
To err is human, to persist in it beastly.--Spanish.
Too much fear is an enemy to good deliberation.
Truth refines but does not obscure.
Spanish.---La verdad adelgazo pero no quiebra.
Truth may be blamed, but it can never he shamed,
Truth hath always a fast bottom.-Gaelic.
Truths and roses have thorns about them.
Truth may languish but can never perish.-Italian.
Truth is the daughter of time.
Ital.-La verita e figlia del tempo.
Truths too fine spun, are subtle fooleries.
To give is honour, to ask is grief.-Spanish.
A proud but generous sentiment.
To a bad character, good doctrine avails nothing-Italian.
U. V.
Unkindness has ng remedy at law.
Vain glory blossoms, but never bears.
Vice is it's own punishment, and sometimes its own cure,
Vows made in storms are forgotten in calms.
W.
Wealth breeds a pleurisy, ambition a fever, liberty a ver-
tigo, and poverty is a dead palsy.Gaelic.
We talk, but God doeth what he pleases.
We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct,
We have all forgotten more than we remember.
Well to judge depends on well to hear.-Italian.
The French say, “ A foolish judge makes a short sentence,??
What the eye sees not, the heart rues not.
What maintains one vice would bring up two children.
What soberness conceals drunkenness reveals.
Lat.---Quod est in corde sobrii est in ore ebrii.
When you are angry, remember that you may be calm
and when you are calm remember that you may be
angry.--Spanish.
When honour grew mercenary money grew honourable
Who thinks to deceive God, deceives himself. Italian


82 RELIGION, VIRTUE; AND LEARNING.
Woe to those preachers who listen not to themselves.
Who is wicked in the country will be wicked in the town,
Who thinks often of death, does things worthy of life.--
Italian.
Who teaches often learns himself.--Ilalian.
Where content is, there is a feast.'
Who is not used to lie thinks every one speaks the truth.
-Italian.
Who draws others into ill courses is the devil's agent.
Who thinks every day to die can never perish. Italian
Worth begets in base minds envy; in great souls emu-
lation.
Who has one foot in a brothel, has the other in the hospi.
tal.-Italian.
Where reason rules appetite obeys.
Where honour ceases, knowledge decreases.
Lat.-Honos alit artes.
Who preaches war is the devil's chaplain.
Whoring and bauderie do often end in beggary.
Who is bad to his own is bad to himself. Italian.
When you would be revenged on your enemy, live as
you ought, and you have done it to some purpose !
Who follow not virtue in youth, cannot fly sin in old age.
--Ital.
Worth hath been underated ever since wealth was orera
valued..
Who pardons the bad injures the good.-Italian.
Who perishes in needless danger is the devil's martyr.
Whoredom and grace dwelt ne'er in one place.--Scotch.
When you have no observers be afraid of yourself.
When a proud man hears another praised, he thinks him.
self injured.
When passion enters at the foregate, wisdom goes out at
the postern.
Wise men have their mouth in their heart, fools their
heart in their mouth.
Wisdom without innocence, is knavery ; innocence withe
out wisdom, is folly.
Wisdom don't always speak in Greek and Latin.
Wise men learn by others' harm, fools by their own.
Wise men care not for what they cannot have.
Who ever suffered for not speaking ill of others


RELIGION, VIRTUE, AND LEARNING. 83
Wicked men, like madmen, have sometimes their lucid
intervals.
Where the heart is past hope, the face is past shame,
U.
Unkindness has no remedy at law.
Y.
Years know more than books.
You would do little for God if the devil were dead.--
Scotch.
You make a great purchase when you relieve the neces.
sitous.
You plead after sentence given.
You should ask the world's leave before you commend
yourself.
You will never repent of being patient and sober.
You may break a colt but not an old horse.
You will never have a friend, if you must have one with-
out failings.
Your father's honour to you is but a second-hand honour.
Youth and white paper take any impressiou.
2.
Zeal, without knowledge, is like fire without light.
LAWS, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
A.
A PRINCE wants a million, a beggar but a groat.
An ass that carries a load is better than a lion that devours
men.
An illiterate king is a crowned ass.
Ital. Il re non letterato e un asino incoronato.
A king is never powerful that has not power on the sea.
Ital.
A king promises, but observes only what he pleases.
Ital.-Un prince promette, ma non osserva se non cio che gli
comple,


LAWS, GOVERNMENT, AND
Án ill man in office is a public calamity.
A true English nan knows not when a thing is well.
Who knows but it is to the grumbling spirit of our country
men that Englaud owes her superiority to other nations
Thank God, we have not the phlegm of the Germans, to
whom, if they only say “ Eat straw," they eat straw.
| Antiquity cannot privilege an error, nor novelty preju-
dice a truth.
A deceitful peace is more hurtful than open war.
Ital.-Noce piu la pace simulata, che la guerra aperta. i
Antiquity is not always a mark of verity.
A king's favour is no inheritance.
A fox should not be on the jury at a goose's trial.
B.
Beggars fear no rebellion.
Be you never so high the law is above you.
Better a lean peace than a fat victory.
By wisdom peace, by peace plenty.
From the anger of a lord, and from a mutiny of the peor
ple God deliver us.--Spanish.
For sovereign power all laws are broken.--Spanish.
G.
Good laws often proceed from bad manners:
Ital.-Le boune leggi spesso nascono da cattivi costumi'
Good kings never make war, but for sake of peace.
Good men are a public good.
H.
He whose father is alcade goes to trial with confidence.
Spanish.-Quien padre tiene alcalde, seguro va a juicio.
He that puts on a public gown, must put off the private
person.
He that England would win,
Must with Ireland first begin.
In time of war Ireland is of the first importance to this coun
try, furnishing her with a number of able bodied men, both
soldiers' and sailor's, and likewise beef, pork, butter, and
other provisions for victualing her fleets and garrisons ; if
these supplies were cut off, by Ireland being in the hands of
an enemy, it would be extremly detrimental.


PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
85
He is half a king who has the king's good graces. Ital.
He who gives to the public gives to no one.
Spanish.-Quien hace por comun, hace por ningun.
Hospitality to the exile, and broken bones to the oppres-
sor.-Gaelic.
A noble sentiment, worthy to be engraven on the banners of
England, and form the basis of her foreign and domestic
policy. We have greatly degenerated from the virtues of
our remote progenitors. The ancient Gael, even in their
fastnesses and mountins, were more generous than their
descendants in all their opulence and grandeur. They had
no Alien Bills---no midnight arrest. --no espionage to fright
the stranger from the shores, or render his abode there pre-
carious. They did not unite with oppressors, or by a sus-
picious neutrality, countenance their injustice ; they threw
open their doors to the exile, and broke the bones of the op-
pressor. The sentiment is so magnanious, it sems worth
preserving in the original Gaelic ;
- Fialachd dh' an fhogarrach, 's enamhan brist dh'an eacor-
ach."
He that serves the public obliges nobody.-Italian.
He that buys magistracy must sell justice.
Human laws reach not thoughts.
In settling an island, the first building erected by a Span-
iard will be a church ; by a Frenchman, a fort; by a
Dutchman, a warehouse; and by an Englishman, an
Alehouse.
It is the justice's clerk that makes the justice,
It were better to hear the lark sing, than the mouse cheep.
A border proverb of the Douglases ; to express, as Sir Walter
Scott observes, what Bruce had pointed out, that the woods
and bills of their country were their safest bulwarks, in-
stead of the fortified places which the English surpassed
their neighbours in the art of assaulting and defending,
Justice will not condemn, even the devil wrongfully,
K.
King's chaff is worth other men's corn.-Scotch. .
The perquisities that attend kings are better than the wages
of other persons.
Kings and bears oft worry their keepers."
Kings have long arms, and have many eyes and ears.-
Italian.
Kings have no power over souls.


26
LAWS, GOVERNMENT, AND
Laws catch flies, but let hornets go free.
Law makers should not be law breakers.--Scotch.
Law governs man, and reason the law.
Law cannot persuade where it cannot punish.
Law is costly, take a part and agree...Scotch.
Like the judges of Gallicia, who, for half a dozen chick.
ens, will dispense with a dozen penal statutes.--Spanish.
A similar dole is said to have been formerly very efficacious
with our country justices of the peace. Another Spanish
proverb says, “ To the judges of Gallicia go with feet in
hand," alluding to a present of poultry, usually held by the
legs.
·M.
Might overcomes right.
Money is an abridgement of human power.
Italian.-II danaro e un compendio del potere humano.
Much disorder brings with it much order.-Spanish.
Much law but little justice.
Where there is much law, there must be much uncertainty,
and uncertainty in the laws must be productive of litigation,
which itself is a cause of great suffering and injustice to
those possesed of little property.
N.
New lords, new laws
No money, no Swiss.
Alluding to the base and selfish policy of the cantonal and
federal governments of Switzerland, who sold their citizens
to shed their blood in the wars of other nations.
0.
Oppression causes rebellion.
of all wars, peace ought to be the end.- Pax quæritur
belio.
Oppression will make a wise man mad.-Scotch.
P.
Possession is eleven points of the law, and they say there
are but twelve.
Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world.


PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
This is in the wrong tense ; it ought to have been in the past,
not in the present time. Popular opinion is not now &
thing to be despised, though, prior to the more general dif-
fusion of letters, it was little better than popular delusion.
What, indeed, was the opinion of the educated classes worth
two centuries ago, upon any question of moral, government,
or natural philosophy? What did they know of any branch
of physical science, of political economy, penal law, or the
principles, of government? They had no books, and if they
had, they could not have read them. Many of the Peers, in
the reign of Henry VIII. did not know how to read and
could only sign their names with that almost forgolton sym-
bol &-X, which the most illiterate classes would now be
ashamed of employing. Books upon hobgoblins, witches,
omens, kuid incantations, formed the literature of the age,
and, of course, the more of this sort of knowledge any one
possesed, the more stupid and mischievous he became.
James 1. was esteemed wise in his generation ; he was the
Solomon of his time, and his superior wisdom consisted in
burning and tormenting those who differed from him on the
nature of the Divine essence. Judge Hale is a well-known
instance of the vandalism of the upper-classes ; to a recent
period this luminary of the law could not define simple lar:
ceny but understood the nature of witchcraft, and publicly
condemned men for this imaginary offence, amidst the ap.
plause of his no less enlightened contemporaries! Popular
opinion was a "great lie" when Galileo was prosecuted for
explaning the true nature of the earth's motion, but the
times have widely changed. The invention of printing, and
consequent spread of knowledge, have dispersed the cloud
· with which all ranks were enveloped : and the vox populi
may be now considered the barometer of Truth.
Peace would be general in the world, if there were nei-
· ther mine nor thine.
Hal.-Gran pace sårrebbe in terra, se non vi fosse il mio, e il
tuo.
R.
Rewards and punishments are the basis of good govern-
ment.
Ital.- Pena e premio son l'anima del buon governo.
Rigid justice is the greatest injustice.
This seems paradoxical. It doubtless means that to execute
the laws strictly to the letter, without regard to those cir-
cumstances of alleviation, which occasionly attend the com-
mision of crimes, would be unjust. For example, when


LAWS, GOVERNMENT, AND
theft is committed merely to obtain means of subsistence,
or murder after suffering a greivous provocation, for which
there is no redress : then it seems fair the execution, if not
the sentence, of the law should be mitigated. The English
penal code has, in several instances, provided a different
punishment for the same offence, owing to the circumstan-
ces under which it was committed, as in the different cases
of homicide. But it was impossible to foresee all the shades
of difference, which tend to soften or aggravate the atrocity
of crimes, and, in consequence, considerable discretion is
left in the execution of the laws to the judge or cheif ma-
gistrate. This does not alter the fundamental principle of
jurisprudence, that the law should be the same for all ; it
only modifies the execution, not the sentence of the law. It
makes no dtstinction between the rich and the poor; for if a
gentleman commits a felon's offence, he receives a felon's
punishment, without regard to his embroidered coat or
long purse.
Soldiers in peace are like chimnies in summer.
Such is the government, such are the people. Italian,
T.
The blood of the soldier makes the glory of the general.
Ital.--Il sangue del soldato fa grande il capitano.
The people murder one another, and princes embrace one
another.-- Italian.
The soldier is well paid for doing mischief:
Ital.—Il soldato per far male e ben pagato.
The king's cheese goes half away in parings.
That war is only just which is necessary.
The king may give honour, but thou art to make thyself
honourable.
The multitude of offenders is their protection.
The subject's love is the king's life guard.
The fear of war is worse than war itself.
Ital.-- Peggio e la paura della guerra, che la guerra istessa. .
The guilty man fears the law, the innocent man fortune.
The greater the man, the greater the crime.
The word of a king ought to be binding, as the oath of a
subject.-Italian.
The more laws, the more offenders,


PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
"The worst of law is, that one suit breeds twenty.
The laws go as kings please.
Spanish.--Alla van leyes, donde quieren reyes.
The king may bestow offices, but cannot bestow wit to
manage them.
The treason is loved, but the traitor is hated. Italian.
A setiment often repeated by Julius Cæsar, of which proba.
bly he was the author Shakspeare has forcibly expressed
the feelings of one who had been deceived.
Thou cold blooded slave.
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side ?
Been sworn my soldier ? bidding me depend
Upon thy stars, thy fortuuè, and thy strength ?
And dost thou now fall over my foes?
Thou wear'st a lion's hide! doff it, for shame,
And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs!"
Traitors, false friends, and apostates, may be all iucluded un-
der the same anathema.
*The mob has many heads but no brains.
The magistrate's son escapes from every thing.--Spanish.
* Greatmen,” says Mr. Collins, "too often commit all sorts
of villany with impunity.” Not in England, we presume.
It is long since the aristocracy of this country lost the pri-
vilege to levy contributions, to rob and murder, with impu-
nity. Thank God, the highest person in the kingdom (ex.
cept the King, who the bishops, gay, can do no wrong),
cannot raise a finger against the lowest, without being a
menable to the laws. The case is different in Ireland, if
Mr. Wakefield be correct, but that has long been a " spot
accursed,” out of the pale of the law and justice too.
Their power and their will are the measures princes take
of right and wrong.
The larger states are, the more they are subject to revo-
lutions.-Italian.
The trial is not fair, where affection is judge.
Trude and commerce are universal cheating by general
consent.
To keep a custom you hammer the anvil still though you
have no iron.
W.
War makes thieves and peace hangs them.-Ital–French.
War is death's feast.
The Italians say, “ When war begine, hell opens,"
24


90
LAWS, GOVERNMENT, &c.
War with the world and peace with England. --Spanish.
It is uncertain whether this historical proverb be the result of
the splendid folly of the Spanish armada ; but England must
always have been a desirable ally to Spain, against her
powerful neighbour. Such is the natural policy of Spain ;
but how the wisdom of the foregoing maxim has been sac-
rificed under the sway of her late sovereigns !
Wars brings scars.
War, hunting, and love, have a thousand pains for one
pleasure.
Spanish.---Guerra, caza, yamores, por un placer mil do-
lores.
We may see a prince but not search him.
What a great deal of good great men might do !
What Christ takes not, the exchequer carries away.
Spanish.
A striking picture of national suffering, under the double
evils of a rapacious church and oppressive taxation,
Where there are many laws, there are many enormities.
Where drums beat, laws are silent.
Who draws the sword against his prince, must throw a-
way the scabbard.
Who knows not how to dissemble, knows not how to
reign,
Ital.-Chi non sa dissimulare, non sa regnare.
A favourite maxim of Tiberius, the Roman emperor, and of
Louis XII. of France.
Who serves at court, dies on straw.--- italian.
Alluding to the uncertainty of royal favour. It cannot of
course, apply to England, where it is well known the sun-
shine of the court is the most sure means of providing
for a comfortable old age!
Who eats of the king's goose will void a feather for forty
years after.-French.
With the king and the Inquisition, hush Spanish.
The gravity and taciturnity of the Spaniards have been as-
cribed to this proverb. It is descriptive of the state of the
people when the popular spirt was subdued, and every one
dreaded to find a spy under his roof.
Wise and good men invented the laws, but the fools and
the wicked put them upon it.
You pretend the public, but mean yourself.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
A BROAD hat does not always cover a wise head.
Ask thy purse what thou shouldst buy,
A man that keeps riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass
that carries gold and eats thistles.
Accusing the times is but excusing ourselves.
A great fortune is a great slavery.
A bird is known by its note, and a man by his talk.
A fop of fashion is the mercer's friend; the tailor's fool and
his own foe.
Á good presence is letters of recommendation.
A hog upon trust, grunts till he is paid for.
A man in debt is stoned every year.---Spanish.
That is, he is dunned, persecuted, and ultimately harassed to
death, by the perpetual visitations of his creditors. It is
a question, worthy the attention of the Parliament, to as-
certain how many poor devils in this commercial country
are annually driven to suicide or to Bedlam from pecuni-
ary embarrassment. One of the greatest improvements in
legislation would be to follow the example of America, and
abolish compulsory process for the recovery of debts. It
would not only root out a fruitful source of litigation and
inconsiderate speculatiou, but abolish a gross anomaly in
our jurisprudence. To give the power of arbitary impri-
sonment to a creditor is to identiíy the prosecutor with
the judge, and to make a man amenable, not to fixed laws,
but to the passions and caprice of incensed individuals.
All covet, all lose.
Arglis at home, but a mole abroad.
Ital.--In casa argo, di furor talpa.
A spur in your head is worth two in your heel.
A mittened cat never was a good hunter,
A sluggard takes an hundred steps because he would not
take one in due time.
Account not that work slavery that brings in penny savory


92 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
A sillerless man gangs fast through the market.---Scotch.
As you salute you will be saluted.--- Italian.
A nod from a lord is a breakfast for a fool.
A gentleman ought to travel abroad, but to dwell at
home.
A rich man's foolish sayings pass for wise ones.---Spanish.
A rascal grown rich has lost all his kindred.
A good word for a bad one, is worth much and costs little.
--- Italian.
A man without ceremony had need of great merit in its
place.
Ali saints without, all devils within.
Alike every day makes a clout on Sunday.---Scotch.
According to your purse govern your mouth.--- Italian.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
As good play for nothing, as work for nothing.
A fu' purse never lacks friends.---Scotch.
A covetous man mages a half-penny of a farthing, and a
liberal man makes sixpence of it.
Always taking out of a meal-tub, and never putting in,
soon comes to the bottom.
A pepny spared is twice got.
An artist lives every where.
A Greek proverb, used by Nero, when he was reproached
with the ardour he gave himself up to the study of music.
It answers to the Spanish, “ A skilful mechanic makes &
good pilgrim." He will in every place find the means to
maintain himself; which gives him an advantage over the
mere gentleman, who might beg, while the artist could live
by his trade. No class is, in fact more independent than
mechanics. For this reason Rousseau taught every child
should be instructed in some trade: and the Germans of
all ranks, formerly were brought up to some handicraft, so
that they might be provided against the vicissitudes of for
tune.
All men think their enemies ill men.'
A man in a passion rides a horse that runs away with him.
All is fine that is fit. . .
An ass is the gravest beast; an owl the gravest bird.
A civil denial is better than a rude grant.
A man's folly ought to be his greatest secret.
An oak is not felled at one stroke.
A servant is known by his master's absence.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES. 23
A shoemaker's wife and a smith's mare are always worst
shod.
The Spaniards say, “In the smith's house the knife is made
of wood;" implying, that where they have the means and
opportunity of procuring the comforts and conveniences of
life, they are generaly the most wanting. Indeed, it were
easy to show, that there are many things in the world be-
side a knife and a horse-shoe, which we do not enjoy, for
other reasons than the want of opportunity to procure
them. Man is a very foolish and pereverse creature, and
his actions influeneed (Mr. Bentham's theory notwihstand-
ing) by very different considerations than a sober calcula-
tion of self-interest.
All is soon ready in an orderly house.
Anger and haste hinder good counsel.
A poor man's debt makes a great noise.
All complain of want of memory, but none of want of judg-
ment.
A man without money is a bow without an arrow.
An open countenance, but close thoughts.--Italian.
Advice given by the elegant Wotton to Milton, prior to the
young poet commencing his Italian travels.
An empty belly hears nobody. '
A poor man has not many marks for fortune to shoot at.
An old dog cannot alter his way of barking.
An idle brain is the devil's work shop.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
A penny-worth of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.
A young man idle, an old man needy, - Italian.
At a good bargain pause awhile.
A little neglect may breed great mischief.
A fat kitchen makes a lean will.
Avirice increases with wealth.--- Italian.
A pin a day is a groat a year.---Scotch.
A stitch in time saves nine.
A true nobleman would prefer rags to patched clothes.---
Spanish.
Mr. Collins explains this proverb to mean, “than a man of
honour ought to embrace poverty, rather than be guilty of
meanness to support his rank in life.” This is very good;
but I should rather interpret the proverb literally, and
think that a person of spirit and dignity would prefer “ the
hole out to a clout." As a noted wit once observed, one
is an accident of the day, but the other is a certain sign of
belpless and preineditated penury,


94 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES:
A wager is a fool's argument.
A thread-bare coat is armour proof against an highway-
man.
A very good or very bad poet is remarkable ; but a mid-
dling one, who can beer?
An affccted superiority spoils company.
A poor squire ought to have his cup of silver, and his ket-
tle of copper. -Spanish.
Though they will cost the most at first, they will last the lon-
ger, and in the end be the cheapest.
A skilful mechanic is a good pilgrim.-Spanish.
An empty purse and a new house make a man wise too
late. - Italian.
A lean dog gets nothing but ilcas.--Spanish.
Alluding to the unfortunate, who are shunned by their for-
mer associates and friends. Paupertas fugitur, toto que
arcessitur orbe.---Lucian.
An artful fellow is the devil in a doublet.
As is the Garden, auch is the gardener.--Hebrew.
A small leak will sink a great ship.
A deluge of words and a drop of sense.
A man loses his time that comes early to a bad bargain.
A wicked book is the worse because it cant repent.
B.
Bacchus has drowned more men than Neptune.
Bashfulness is boyish.
Better eat gray. bread in your youth than in your age..
Scotch.
Better a clout than the hole out.---Scotch.
Beuty is potent, but money is omnipotent.
French.--- Amour fait beaucoup, mais argent fait tout.
Burn not your house 10 iright away the mice,
To subdue a trifling evil do not incur a greater.
Begging of a courtesy is selling of liberty.
Better wear out shoes than sheets.
Better give a shilling than lend and loose a half-a-crown.
Better have one plough going than two cradles.
Better is the last smile than the first laughter.
Business to-morrow.
A Greek_proverb, applied to a person ruined by his own ne-
glect, The fate of an eminent person perpetuated this expres-
sion, which he casually employed on the occasion, One of


96 ENCONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
Do not all that you can do ; spend not all that you have ;
believe not all that you hear; and tell not all that you
know.
Drown not thyself to save a drowning man.
Do not ruin yourself to save a man, from whose character or
situation, there is no hope of effectually serving.
Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt
nor his wife a widow.
Drive thy business; let pot that drive thee.
Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed.
Dirt is dirtiest upon clean white linen.
An imputation on a man of spotless character leaves the foul-
est blot.
Do not close a letter without reading, nor drink water
without seeing it.-Spanish.
Dumb folks get no lands.
Too much diffidence, as well as too forward a disposition, may
impede a man's fortune.
E.
Enough is a feast, too much a vanity.
Every one should sweep before his own door.
Every man is the son of his own work.
Fvery one must live by his trade.
French. Il faut que le pretre vive de l'autel.
Every one has a penny to spend at a new alehouse.
Every man loves justice at another man's house ; nobody
cares for it at his own.
We all naturally love fair play among others, and it is only
when self intervenes, that we become subject to a sinister
bias. This is a truth that needs no illustration here. We
have abundant proof of it in the conduct of judges, juries,
politicians, ministers of religion, and every class; all of
whom are perfectly honourable men, till some darling in-
terest, opinion, or connexion, interferes to bias their de-
cisions.
Every one thinks he hath more than his share of brains.
Expect nothing from him who promises a great deal.
F.
Fancy may bolt bran, and think it flour.
Father, in reclaiming a child, should ont-wit him, and
seldom beat him.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES. 97
For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the
1 horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.
Showing how a small neglect sometimes breeds a great mis-
chief.
Fine dressing, is a fine house swept before the windows.
For mad words, deaf ears.
Flattery sits in the parlour, while plain dealing is kicked
out of doors.
Forecast is better than work hard.
Fortune can take nothing from us but what she gave.
Fortune knocks once at least of every man's door.
G.
Good words cost nothing, but are worth much. --
God send us some money, for they are little thought of
that want it, quoth the Earl of Engleton at Prayer.-
Scotch.
Go not for every grief to the physician, for every quar-
rel to the lawyer, nor for every thirst to the pot.-Ital.
God makes and apparel shapes, but money makes the man.
Lat.-Pecuniæ obediunt omina.
Good bargains are pick-pockets.
Grieving for misfortunes is adding gall to wormwood.
Grandfather's servants are never gooil.
Give neither counsel nor salt till you are asked for it.---
Italian.
Give a clown your finger and he'll take your whole hand.
H.
Have not the cloak to make when it begins to rain.
Help hands, for I have no lands.
He who has neither ox nor cow ploughs all night and has
nothing in the morning-Spanish.
He may make a will upon his nail for any thing he has to
give.
He who pays weil is master of every body's purse.
He who shares has the worst share.--Spanish.
He may find fault that cannot mend.-Scotch.
He who trusts to the landlady at a tavern feels it at home.
-Spanish.
Ile who would catch fish must not mind getting wet,
Spanish


'98 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
He who stoops much, shows his posteriors.-Spanish.
He who rises late neither hears mass nor eats meat.
Spanish,
• He that falls in the dirt, the longer he lies the dirtier he is.
He is idle that might be better employed.
He who will stop every man's mouth, niust have a great
deal of meal.
Ile who works in the market-place has many teachers.-
Spanish.
He that has no silver in his purse, should have silver on
his tongue.
He that lives upon hope has but a slender diet.
He hath swallowed a stake, he cannot bow.
He knows not a hawk from a handsaw.
He that died half a year ago is dead as Adam.
He is fool enough himself, who will bray against another
ass.
He who says what he likes, hears what he does not like. +
-Spanish.
He is not wise who is not wise for himself.
He who would thrive, must follow the church, the sea, or
the king's service.
Spanish.-Qnien quiere medrar, iglesia, o mar, o casa real.
He that lends to all who will borrow, shows great good
will but little wisdom.
He loves bacon well that licks the sow's breech.
He sends to the East Indies for Kentish pipins.
He that makes himself an ass, must not take it ill if men
ride him.
He is not drunk for nothing, who pays his reason for his
reckoning.
He has left his purse in his other breeches.
He plays well that wins.
Honours set off merit, as dress handsome persons.
le that wears black must hang a brush at his back.
To clean off the dust, which it shows more than any colour.
Men, or rather boys and monkeys, are very imitative crea-
tures. The king, on one occasion, was reported in the
newspaper to have had on a black stock, and ever since
black stocks have been worn, a la militaire, by every ap-
prentice and serving man in the metropolis. As tú my-
self, I think black an odious colour. First, because it is a
professional cut, with which are associated ideas of cant


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES. 99!
and law, of lawn sleeves, wigs, and gowns, all of which I
despise. Secondly, it is a grave and melancholy costume.
It is long since gravity was considered a type of superior
intellect (a part, by the by, of the “ Wisdom of the An-
cients,”) and why should a black coat indicate superior
holiness, learning, or respectability ? It is clearly a colour
that tends to excite gloomy ideas (the devil himself being
black,) and there are, certainly, abundant subjects of
melancholy in this world without any artificial creations
that way. My last objection to it is philosophical, and ap-
plies only to hot weather Opticians inform us that colours
are not in bodies themselves, but arise solely from the re-
flection of the different rays of light. Thus, those that
reflect the red rays, are of a red colour ; violet-violet;
orange-orange : and so on to the end of the chapter.
From this it follows, that bodies which reflect the gretest
number, and the hottest rays, are the coolest Now white
is that colour, for it throws off all the solar rays, whereas
black absorbs them all. White then is the coolest and black
the hottest wear in the summer. Away then with the
black coats, hats, cravats, beards, and every thing else
of a sable hue, for the gay and cheerful white, which in the
Dog Days at least, is the only comfortable and philosophi.
cal costume!
He hath slept well that remembers not that he hath slept
ill.
He had need rise by betimes that would please every body,
He has riches enough, who needs neither borrow nor flat-
ter.
He who has a trade may travel every where.--Spanish.
He who buys by the penny, keeps his own house and other
men's too.
He that knows not when to be silent, knows not when to
speak.
He who doth not rise early never does a good day's work.
He has the Bible in his hand, and the Alcoran in his heart.
He speaks as if every word would lift a dish.
He scratches his head with one finger.
A Greek proverb, applied to persons of effeminate manners.
He'd skin a louse and send the hide and fat to market.
Irish
He's like a bagpipe; you never hear him till his belly is
• fuil.
He hath made a good progress in a business, who hath
thought well of it beforehand.


100
ECONOMY, AIANNERS, AND RICHES.
He who has an art, has every where a part.
Ital...Chi ha arte, per tutto ha parte.
He is miserable once who feels it, but twice who fears it
before it comes.--Eastern.
He that spares when he is young, may spend when he is
old.
He who promiseth runs in debt.-Spanish.
He that hears much, and speaks not at all, shall be wel.
code both in bower and hall.
Ital.--Parlo poco, ascolto assai, e non falliri.
He tnat buys a horse ready wro ght, has many a pin and
nail for nought.
The French say, ' Il faut acheter maison'fait, et femme a faire.
A house ready made and a wife to make.
He that laughs when he is alone, will make sport in com-
pany.
He that converses not, knows nothing.
He set my house on fire only to roast eggs !
He that fears you present will hate you absent.
He lights his candle at both ends.
He that will thrive must rise at five; he that hath thriven
may lie till seven.
He who serves well, need not be afraid to ask his wages.
He is never likely to have a good thing cheap, that is
afraid to ask the price.-French.
He who stumbles twice over one stone, it is no wonder if
he break his neck.-Spanish.
He that canna mak sport should mar nane.-Scoich.
He that has a great nose thinks every body is speaking of
it.
He's an ill boy that goes like a top, no longer than it is
whipt.
He sneaks as if he would creep into his mouth.
He wounded a dead man to the heart.
Ile has ae face to God, anither to the devil.-Scotch.
lle that by the plough would thrive, himself must either
hold or drive.
Honey in the mouth saves the purse.
Ital.-Miele in bocca, guarda la borsa.
Honours change manners.
Hunting, hawking, and love, for one joy have a hundred
grief. Scotch.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES. 101
He who converses with nobody, is either a brute or an
angel.
He knows which side of his bread is buttered.
He mends like sour ale in summer.
I.
Idle folks have the most labour.
Idle men are dead all their life long.
Idleness is the greatest prodigality in the world.
( I sell nothing on trust till to-morrow.
Written on the shop doors.
jf an ass goes a travelling, he'll not come home a horse.
If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.
If you would succeed in any undertaking of importance, you
must devote all your mind and attention to it.
If you will not hear reason, she will surely rap your
knuckles.
If better were within, better would come out.
If you have a loitering serrant, place his dinner before
him and send him of an errand.- Spanish.
Idle folks have mostly the sharpest appetites, and a bribe in
the shape of something to eat or drink, puts them the
soonest in motion.
Industry is fortune's right hand; frugality, her left.
If you wish a thing done, go; if not, send.
If youth knew what age would crave, it would both get
and save. ..
I mistress and you miss, who is to sweep the house.
Spanish.
If you make money your god, it will plague you like the
devil.
If the counsel be good, no matter who gave it.
It is more easy to praise poverty than to bear it.--Italian.
In affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith but by
the want of it.
If you be not ill, be not ill-like.--Scotch.
If fools i ent not to market, bad ware would not be sold.
- Spunish.
It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright..
Impudence and wit are vastly different.
If you play with a fool at home, he'll play with you
abroad.--Spanish.
9*


102 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
It is a pity that those who taught you to talk, did not also
teach you to hold your tongue.
If you would make an enemy, lend a man money and ask
for it again.-Portuguese.
It is too late to spare when the bottom is bare.-Scotch..
It is miserable hospitality to open your doors and shut
your countenance.
It is a poor art that maintains not the artizan.-Italian.
Jests, like sweetmeats, have often sour sauce.
K.
Keep a thing seven years and you will find a use for it.--
Gaelic.
Keep out of a hasty man's way for a while; out of a sul-
len man's all the days of your life.
Keep your thoughts to yourself; let your mien be free
and open.
Keep something for a fair fit.-Scotch.
Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.
Keep aloof from quarrels ; be neither a witness nor a par-
ty.
Let choler be a common soldier, not a commander.
Let us be friends, and put out the devil's eyes.
Let your letter stay for the post, not the post for your let-
ter-Italian.
Loquacity is the fistula of the soul, ever running and ne-
ver cured.
Liberality is not in giving largely, but in giving wisely.
Leave raillery when it is the most agreeable.
Ital.-Lascia la burla, quando piu piace.
Since long stories went out of fashion with the hoops and
wire caps of our grandmothers, a talent for raillery became
the most engaging social accomplishment. There is, cer-
tainly, nothing more entertaining than a little bit of banter
on the follies and vanities of our friends and acquaintance;
it often does them good, and nobody in the world any harm.
provided it is well carried on. But, like the handling of a
delicate lancet, it requires great skill in the management,
so that it only punctures the skin, without wounding the
flesh and leaving a rankling soreness behind. Charles II.
is represented to have possessed this fine tact to perfec-
tion. Nobody knew beiter how to hit the morbid parts of


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
193
his companions, yet, like a dexterous fencer, he used his
weapon with so much grace, good-breeding, and good-na-
ture, that they could never harbour any resentment for the
punishment he inflicted. The rule in the proverb is a good
one, and founded on a just observance of colloquial jokery.
The fact is, we are never so well pleased with our smart
sayings, as when we are doing the most execution ; when
our jokes tell the best, or, as the saying is, the cap fits, we
enjoy them the most, and then is the great danger, lest, in
the tide of victory, we caricature the real (for it is only the
truth that wounds) infirmities of our friends, in a way
even good tempers cannot bear, in jest or earnest.
Listeners hear no good of then selves.
Little said is soon amended.
Little boats must keep near shore, large estates may ven-
ture more.
Lucky men need no counsel.
Lying rides on debt's back.
To put off our creditors we have recourse to subterfuges,
which, if not absolute lying, are a near approach to it.“
Long is the arm of the needy.-Gaelic.
M.
Many there be that buy nothing with their money but
repentance.
Make hay while the sun shines,
Make a wrong step and down you g).
More nice than wise.
Modest appearance, good humour, and prudence, make a
gentleman.
Make yourself all honey, and the flies will devour you.---
Italian.
Money will make the pot boil, though the devil p--- in the
fire.
Money makes the map perfect.
Lat. Integer est judex, quisquis non indiget auro.
Many talk like philosophers, and live like fools.
Masters should be sometimes blind and sometimes deal
Men apt to promise, are apt to forget.
N.
Nothing should be done in haste but gripping of feas:...
Scotch.


104
ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
Nature sets every thing for sale to labour.
There are only two sources of wealth-land and labour. The
spontaneous produce of the earth is limited, but there is
no limit to the produce of industry.
Neither give to all, nor contend with fools.
Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.
None so old that he hopes not for a year of life.
Never lose a bog for a halfpenny worth of tar.
No sweet without some sweat; without pains, on gains.
Never sign a writing till you have read it, nor drink wine
till you have seen it.--Spanish
No raillery is worse than that which is true.
Ital.. Non ce la peggior burla che la vera.
Neither great poverty, nor great riches, will hear reason.
0.
Out of debt, out of danger.
One that is perfectly idle is perfectly weary too, and knows
not what he would have or do.
Of money, wit, and virtue, believe one fourth of what
you hear.
Overdoing is doing nothing to the purpose.
One barber shaves not so close but another finds work.
Of little meddling comes great ease.
Of saving cometh having.
Owe money to be paid at Easter, and Lent will seem
short to you.
One ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.
One may live and learn.
P.
Pay as you go, and keep from small score.
Pains to get, care to keep, fear to lose.
Past labour is pleasant.
Poor men may think well, but rich men may think well
and do well,
Play s gude while it is plays--Scotch.
Poverty is the mother of all arts.
Ital.--La poverto e la madre di tutti garti.
Provide for the worst the best will save itself.
Poverty breaks covenants.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES.
103
Poverty is an evil counsellor,
Poverty is no baseness, but it is a branch of knavery.
Spanish.-La probeza no es villeza, mas es ramo de picardia.
"He whom the dread of want ensnares,
With baseness acts, with meanness, bears."
Poverty breeds strife.
Poverty craves many things, but avarice more.----Italiano
Poverty has no shame.
Spanish.--A probeza, no hay verguenza.
Poverty makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fel-
lows.
Poverty is social slavery.
The old sayings, on the evils of poverty are numerous-anů
no wonder, for it is a bitter calamity. Burke has justly ob-
served, that riches give a man the same ascendance in ci-
vilized society, which superior strength does in a state of
nature. Without money we are powerless; we can neither
have law, nor physic, nor good divinity What then is a man
if he has not the means to protect property, preserve health,
nor procure salvation ? He is poor indeed! He is a slave
doubly so, in body and in mind. He must toil for some-
body to live, and, though he may think, he must be wary
how he speaks, lest he offended his employers--may be his
PATRONS! Oh the word! he had better be a negro and
boilfsugar than a needy man in a great city. To walk about
tongue-tied and chop-fallen, the scorn of wealthy fools, and
surrounded with enjoyments, which, to him, only " vex
his eye and tease his heart !" He lies under the double
curse of Tantalus, and the gnawing of Prometheuş.
Purposing without performing, is mere fooling.
Praise without profit, puts little in the pocket.
Praise a fair day at night.
Quality without Quantity is little thought of.---Scotclr.
Quarrelling dogs come halting home.
Quick landlords make careful tenants.
Quiet persons are welcome every where,
Quick returns make rich merchants.-Scotch.
.
R.
Rise early and you will see; wake and you will get
wealth.-Spanish.
Riches like manure, do no good till they are spread:


106 ECONOMY. MANNERS, AND RICHES.
Riches may at any time be left, but not poverty.
Running hares do not need the spur.-Italian.
See, listen, and be silent and you will live in peace.--
Italian
Silks and satins put out the kitchen fire.
So much of passion so much of nothing to the purpose.
Speak well of your friend, of your enemy say nothing.
Spare to speak, spare to speed.
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid
to run away.
Sit in your place and none can make you rise.
Spend not where you may save; spare not where you
must spend.
Spend and be free, but make no waste.
Speak little and to the purpose, and you will pass for
somebody.
Setting down in writing is a lasting memory,
Some are very busy, and yet do nothing.
T.
Take time while time is, for time will away.
Talking pays no toll.
Take heed will surely speed.
Tell not all you know, nor do all you can.-Italian.
That which is well done is twice done.
Think of ease but work on.
That is good sport that fills the belly.--Scotch.
Take away fuel and take away flame.
The stone that lies not in your way, need not offend you.
The best throw upon the dice is to throw them away. *
The best of the game is, to do one's business and talk
little of it.
The money you refuse will never do you good.
There are more lords in the world than fine gentlemen.
The sun is never the worse for shining on a dung-hill.
The sweat of Adam's brow has streamed down ours ever
since.
Too much spoileth, too little is pothing.
The belly teaches all arts.
Ital.- Tutte le scienze insegna il ventre.
The present fashion is always handsome.


ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES. 109
Trouble not your head about the weather, nor the go-
vernment,
V.
Virtue itself, without good manners, is laughed at.
Venture thy opinion, but not thyself for thy opinion,
U.
Unbidden guests know not where to sit down.
Unexperienced men think all things easy.
Use soft words and hard arguments.
W.
Wealth smakes worship.
Weaith is best known by want
Well to work and make a fire, it doth care and skill res
quire.
When flatterers meet, the devil goes to dinner.
Who spends more than he should, shall not have to spend
when he would.
(We hate delay; yet it makes us wise:
We never know the worth of water till the well is elry,
Where necessity pinches, boldness is prudence,
With foxes we must play the fox.
Wit is folly, unless a wise man has the keeping of it.
When necessity comes in, turn modesty out.
Wine and youth are fire upon fire.
Who more brag than they that have least to do.
Worth, without wealth, is a good servant out of place.
What the better is the house for the sluggard rising early,
Wealth is not his who gets it, but his who enjoys it.
When a man is not liked, whatever he does is amiss.
Who will not keep a penny shall never have many.
Wrinkled purses make wrinkled faces.
When a fool has bethought himself, the market is over.
When you have any business with a man, give him title
enough.
When you have bought one fine thing you must by ten
more, so that your appearance may be all of a piece.
When either side grows warm with argument, the wisest
man gives over first.
Weigh right if you sell dear. .


110 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES,
Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you
like it not at present.
Would you know the value of money, go and borrow
some.--Spanish.
We must not be down and cry, God help us !
When you meet with a fool, pretend business to get rid
oihim.
Who buys has need of a hundred eyes, who sells has
enough of one.
We are bound to be honest, but not to be rich.
When the door is shut the work improves.-Spanish.
You are less liable to be interrupted, or have your attention
withdrawn from your business.
Whai tutor shall we find for a child sixty years old !
When you'obey your superiors, you instruct your infe.
riors.
When a man's coat is threadbare, it is easy to pick a hole
in it.
When a man is unfortunate and reduced in the world, any
one may and fault with his conduct.
When the horse is stolen, you shut the stable door.
Whon gold speaks, all tongues are silent. - Italian.
When the pig is proffered, hold up the poke.
We must live by the quick, and not by the dead.
Who has nothing in this world is nothing.-Italian
When your companions get drunk and fight, take up your
hat and wish them good night. ;)
Y.
You have fouled yourself, and now you would have me
clean you
You must be content sometimes with rough roads.
You may tell an idle fellow if you but see him at dinner
You may offer a bribe without fear of having your throat
cut.
You must let your phlegm subdue your choler, if you
would not spoil your business.
You have good manners, but never carry them about you.
You must not cut and deal too.
You may give him good advice, but who can give him
* wit to take it.
You must not expect sweet from a dunghill, nor honour
froin a clovn.


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 111
Four looking-glass will tell you what none of your
friends will.
You may know by a penny how a shilling spends.
You gazed at the moon and fell in the guiter.
Your trumpeter is dead, so you sound yourself.
Your great admirers are mostly but silly fellowe."?
You had rather go to mill than to mass.--Spanisk.
You must cut your coat according to your cloth.
French.-Selon le pain il faut le conteau,
· WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
A BONY bride is soon dressed, a short horse soon whisked.
-Scotch.
At the gate which suspicion enters, love goes out. '
A maid that laughs is half taken.
A mill, a clock, and a woman, always want mendinz.
At weddings and funerals, friends are discerned from
kinsfolk.
An old man is a bed full of bones.
As the good man saith, so say we; but as the good woman
saith, so it must be.
A woman and a greyhound must be small in the waist. ---
Spanish.
A little house well filled, a little land well tilled, and a
little wife well willed.
A fair woman, with foul conditions, is like a sumptuous
sepulchre, full of corruption.
A buxom widow must be either married, buried, or shut
up in a convent.--Spanish.
All come to delude her, but none to marry her.----Spanish.
A man may love his house well, and yet not ride on the
ridge.
A man may love his children and relations well, and yet not
be foolishly fond and indulgent to them.


12 WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
1 young woman married to an old man, must behave like
an old woman.
All women are good; good for something, or good for no-
thing.
A woman is known by her walking and drinking.-Span.
More, I apprehend, may be known of a woman by her talking
than her“ walking.” The Spaniards entertain an unfavour-
able opinion of ladies, who are fond of walking, es-
pecially in public places.
A virtuous woman, though ugly, is the ornament of the
house.
A jealous man's horns hang in his eyes.
An obedient wife commands her husband.
A man of straw is worth a woman of gold.
French.-"Un homme de paille, vaut une femme d'or.
If this proverb be meant literally, we can only say it is a very
ungallant one, especially from so gallant a nation as the
French. It is an instance of what we had occasion to re-
mark in the Introduction that those countries the most ce-
lebrated for love and intrigue, are the most severe in their
reflections on the female sex.
A woman that loves to be at the window, is like a bunch
of grapes on the highway.
A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm.
A woman's work is bever at an end.
A liquorish tongue, a liquorish tail.
A good wiſe is the workmanship of a good husband.
A true friend does sometimes venture to be offensive.
An old whore's curse is a blessing.
A woman that paints, puts up a bill that she is to be let.
A woman is to be from her home three times; when she
is christened, married, and buried.--Spanish.
What jealous-pated kpåves these Spaniards must be! A wo-
man had better go to a nunnery at once.
Auvise no one to go to the wars, nor to marry.--Spanish.
A nice wife and a back door, do often make a rich man
poor.--Italian.
A man's best fortune or his worst is a wife,
A man would not be alone even in Paradise.
A husband without ability is like a bouse without a roof.
Spanish.
A lewd bachelor makes a jealous husband.
A groaning wife and a grunting horse never fail their
master.--Scotch.


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 113
A fair woman, without virtue, is like palled wine,
A handsome courtezan is the hell of the soul, and the
scourge of the purse.--Italian.
A very great beauty is either a fool, or proud.
Women of great personal charms are apt to rely too much
upon them, and neglect other means of making themselves
agreeable. But, according to another saying. “There is
no rule without exception," and we doubt not, but there
are many among our fair countrywomen.
An amorous person has never too much.-Spanish.
A baren sow was never good to pige. -Socich.
Applied to old maids and unfruitful wives, who, having no
children of their own, deal harshly to other people's.
A friend that you buy with presents will be bought from
you.
An enemy to beauty is a foe to Nature.
A dog's nose and a maid's knees are always cold.
An amorous old man is like a winter flower.-Spanish.
Spanish.-Viejo amador, invierno con flor.
All are good lasses ; but where come the ill wives frae?
-Scotch.
A maid that taketh yieldeth.
Ital.-Donna che prinde tosto si rende.
A woman conceals what she knows not.
A lass that has many wooers oft fares the worst.--Scotch.
A man must ask his wife leave to thrive.
A sweet and innocent compliance is the cement of love."
A good occassion for courtship is, when the widow returns
from the funeral.
B.
Bare walls make gadding housewives.
Beauty will not buy beef.
Beauty in women is like the flower in spring; but virtue
is like the stars of heaven. .
Beauties without fortunes have sweethearts plenty, but
husbands none at all,
Be a good husband, and you will soon get a penny to spend,
penny to lend, and a penny for a friend.
Biting and scratching is Scots' folks wooing.--Scolch,
10*


214 WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK,
Which answers to the Spanish saying, on the amorous dally.
ings of the feline race--Los amores del gato, vinendo entran :
sites Cat's love begins with quarrelling."
Their friskings, crawlings, squal, I much approve,
Their spittings, pawings, high raised rumps,
Swellid tails and merry-andrew jumps,
With the wild minstrelsy of rapt'rous love. ..
How sweetly roll their gooseberry eyes,
As loud they tune their amorous cries,
And, loving, scratch each other black and blue !"-WALCOT.
Before you marry be sure of a house wherein you tarry.-
Spanish.-Italian.
Bachelors' wives and maids' children are always well
taught,
Better wed over the mixon than over the moor.--Cheshire.
That is, at home or its vicinity, where the parties are known
to each other, than far off where they are strangers : mixon
is the dung and litter in the farm-yard, while the road from
Chester to London is over the moorland in Staffordshire,
It is a spark of provincial pride, to induce the gentry to
intermarry among themselves, to prolong their own fami-
lies, and perpetuate ancient friendships.
Better go away longing than loathing.
Better be half hanged than ill wed.
Beauty draws more than oxen,
Beauty is no inheritance.
Better be a cuckold and not know it, than none and every
body say so.
C.
Call your husband cuckold in jest, and he'll ne'er suspect
you.
Children are uncertain comforts: when little, they make
parents fools ; when great, mad.
Choose a wiſe rather by your ear, than your eye.
Commend a wedded life, but keep thyself a bachelor.
D.
Delays increase desires, and sometimes extingrish them.
Discreet women have neither eyes por ears.
French, -La femme de bien n'ani yeux ni oreilleg,


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
.
115
E.
Every man can tame a shrew, but he that hath her.
Easy to keep the castle that was never besieged - Scotch.
Spoken with bitterness by a handsome woman, when an ugly
one calls her a
w
England is the Paradise of women, the hell of horses, and
the purgatory of servants.
The liberty allowed to women in England, the portion as-
de signed by law to widows out of their husband's goods and
chattels, and the politeness with which all denominations
of that sex are in general treated, join to establish the truth
of the first part of the proverb. The furious driving of
carmen, coachmen, and others, give too much colour to the
second; but we trust this opprobrium on the character of
Englishmen will shortly be removed by the strong public
feeling excited against cruelty to animals, and the late acts
of the legislature. With respect to England being the
“purgatory of servants," it may be flaily denied-unless
it be in some of the cotton manufactories in the North.
Every man can guide an ill wife, but he that hath her.
Scoich.
Fair is not fair, but that which pleaseth.
Ital.Non e bello quel che bello, ma e bello quel che piace.
Fire dresses the meat, and not a smart wench.--Spanish:
Fools are wise men in the affairs of women.
For whom does the blind man's wife paint herself?-
Spanish.
Far fetched, and dear bought, is good for the ladies.
French.Vache de loin a lait assez.
Fann'd fire, and forced love, never did well yet. -Scotch.
Friends got without desert will be lost without cause.
Friends tie their purse with a' cobweb thread.-Italian.
Friendship is the perfection of love.
Fat sorrow is better than lean sorrow.
From many children and little bread, good Lord deliver
us Spanish.
G.
Glasses and lasses are brittle ware. ---Scold,


110 ECONOMY, MANNERS, AND RICHES,
Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you
like it not at present.
Would you know the value of money, go and borrow
some.-- Spanish.
We must not be down and cry, God help us!
When you meet with a fool, pretend business to get rid
oihim.
Who buys has need of a hundred eyes, who sells has
enough of one.
We are bound to be honest, but not to be rich.
When the door is shut the work improves.-Spanish.
You are less liable to be interrupted, or have your attention
withdrawn from your business.
Wha tutor shall we find for a child sixty years old!
When you obey your superiors, you instruct your infe.
riors.
When a man's coat is threadbare, it is easy to pick a hole
in it.
When a man is unfortunate and reduced in the world, any
one may find fauit with his conduct.
When the horse is stolen, you shut the stable door.
When gold speaks, all tongues are silent.-Italian,
When the pig is proffered, hold up the poke.
We must live by the quick, and not by the dead.
Who has nothing in this world is nothing.--Italian
When your companions get drunk and fight, take up your
hat and wish them good night.
Y.
You have fouled yourself, and now you would have me
clean you
You must be content sometimes with rough roads.
You may tell an idle fellow if you but see him at dinner.
You may offer a bribe without fear of having your throat
cut.
You must let your phlegm subdue your choler, if you
would not spoil your business.
You have good manners, but never carry them about you.
You must not cut and deal too.
You may give him good advice, but who can give him
wit to take it.
You must not expect sweet from a dunghill, nor honour
from a clon.


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 113
A fair woman, without virtue, is like palled wine,
A handsome courtezan is the hell of the soul, and the
scourge of the purse.--Italian.
A very great beauty is either a fool, or proud.
Women of great personal charms are apt to rely too much
upon them, and neglect other means of making themselves
agreeable. But, according to another saying. “There is
no rule without exception," and we doubt not, but there
arcanany among our fair countrywomen.
An amorous person has never too much.-Spanish.
A baren sow was never good to pige.--Socich.
Applied to old maids and unfruitful wives, who, having no
children of their own, deal harshly to other people's.
A friend that you buy with presents will be bought from
you.
An enemy to beauty is a foe to Nature.
A dog's nose and a maid's knees are always cold.
An amorous old man is like a winter flower - Spanish.
Spanish.- Viejo amador, invierno con flor.
All are good lasses ; but where come the ill wives frae?
Scotch.
A maid that taketh yieldeth.
Ital.-Donna che prinde tosto si rende.
A woman conceals what she knows not.
A lass that has many wooers oft fares the worst.--Scotch.
A man must ask his wife leave to thrive.
A sweet and innocent compliance is the cement of love.'
A good occassion for courtship is, when the widow returns
from the funeral.
B.
Bare walls make gadding housewives.
Beauty will not buy beef.
Beauty in women is like the flower in spring; but virtue
is like the stars of heaven.
Beauties without fortunes have sweethearts plenty, but
husbands none at all,
Be a good husband, and you will soon get a penny to spend.
penny to lend, and a penny for a friend.
Biting and scratching is Scots' folks wooing.--Scolch,
une cene
10*


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.' . 115
Every man can tame a shrew, but he that hath her.
Easy to keep the castle that was never besieged.--Scotch.
Spoken with bitterness by a handsome woman, when an ugly
one calls her a w
England is the Paradise of women, the hell of horses, and
the purgatory of servants.
The liberty allowed to women in England, the portion as-
designed by law to widows out of their husband's goods ard
chattels, and the politeness with which all denominations
of that sex are in general treated, join to establish the truth
of the first part of the proverb. The furious driving of
carmen, coachmen, and others, give too much colour to the
second; but we trust this opprobrium on the character of
Englishmen will shortly be removed by the strong public
feeling excited against cruelty to animals, and the late acts
of the legislature. With respect to England being the
"purgatory of servants,” it may be flatly denied-unless
it be in some of the cotton manufactories in the North.
Every man cap guide an ill wife, but he that hath her.
Scoich.
. F.
Fair is not fair, but that which pleaseth.
Ital.--Non e bello quel che bello, ma e bello quel ehe piace.
Fire dresses the meat, and not a smart wench.--Spanish:
Fools are wise men in the affairs of women.
For whom does the blind man's wife paint herself?
Spanish.
Far fetched, and dear bought, is good for the ladies.
French.-Vache de loin a lait assez.
Fann'd fire, and forced love, never did well yet.-Scotch.
Friends got without desert will be lost without cause.
Friends tie their purse with a cobweb thread.- Italian. ..
Friendship is the perfection of love.
Fat sorrow is better than lean sorrow.
From many children and little bread, good Lord deliver
us !-Spanish.
Glasses and lasses are brittle ware ---Scotct.


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
Hold your hands off other folks' bairns, till you get some
of your own.--Scotch.
Spoken by a girl, when a young man offers to tease her.
He who is about to marry should consider how it is with
his neighbours.
He has most share in the wedding that lies with the bride.
He that hath a wife and children must not sit with his fin-
gers in his mouth.
Who marrieth for love, without money, hath good nights
and sorry days.--Italian.-Spanish.
He that loseth his wife, and a farthing, has a great loss of
his farthing.-Italian.
He who intrigues with a married woman has his life in
pledge.
Spanish. Quien ama la casada la vida trae emprestada.
He that tells his wite news is but newly married.
The wife grows stale, and the husband less attentive to please
her after the honeymoon
He who wishes to chastise a fool, get him a wife. Italian.
He to whom God gave no sons the Devil gives nephews.
-Spanish.
Implying, that those who have no cares of their own, are
generally oppressed with the cares of others. .
He loves you as a ferret does a rabbit, to make a meal of
you.
He that is a wise man by day is no fool by night.
He that marries a widow will often have a dead man's
head thrown in his dish.-Spanish.
He has a great fancy to marry that goes to the devil for a
wife.
He who does not honour his wife dishonours himself.
Ital.
He who marrieth for wealth sells his liberty.
He that takes not up a pin slights his wife,
He that woos a maid, must come seldom in her sight;
He that woos a widow, must woo her day and night.
He that kisseth his wife in the market-place, shall have
plenty to teach him.


'WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 117
Hast thou a mind to quarrel with thy wife? bid her bring
water to thee in the sunshine.--Spanish
Then swear it is dirty, from the motes which will appear in
the clearest water.
Hearts may agree, though heads differ.
Honest men marry soon, wise men not at all.-Italian.
I.
"I hope better,' quoth Benson, when his wife said, “come
in cuckold.
If you make your wife a goldfinch, she may prove in time
a wag-tail.
In rain and sunshine cuckolds, go to heaven.
I will never spit in my bonnet and set it on my head.
Scotch.
I will never ruin the woman I intend to marry.
If marriages be made in heaven some have few friends
there.--Scotch.
It is in vain to watch a really bad woman.-- Italian.
It is a soure reek when the good wife dings the good man.
-Scotch.
A man in my country coming out of his house, with tears on
his cheeks, was asked :he occasion. He said, there was a
soure reek” in the house ; but, upon farther inquiry, it
was found the wife had beaten him.-KELLY.
It's dangerous marrying a widow, because she has cast
her rider.
It's a good horse that never stumbles, and a good wife that
never grumbles.
If the eye do not admire, the heart will not desire.--Ital.
It is in vain to kick, after you have once put on fetters.
It is a sweet sorrow to buy a termagant wife.
If all the world were ugly, deformity would be po mon-
ster.
In love's wars, he who flyeth is conqueror.
If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.
It's a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock.
-Italian.
If you can kiss the mistress, never kiss the maid.
It is better to marry a quiet fool than a witty scold.
If one will not, another will! so are all maidens married.
If thou desirest a wife, choose her on a Saturday rather
than on a Sunday.--Spanish,
That is, in her deshabille,


118 WONEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
It's hard to wive and thrive both in a year.
If the mother had never been in the oven, she would not
have looked for her daughter there.
K.
Keep the feast till the feast-day-Scotch.
Advice for maidens not to part with their virginity till mar-
ried.
King Arthur did not violate the refuge of a woman.---
Welch.
That is, left her the freedom of her tongue, and would not
beat her for speaking!
Kissing goes by favour.
Kissing is cry'd down to shaking of hands.-Scotch.
Alluding to a proclamation that nobody should kiss hereafter,
but only shake hands. This piece of prudery, it is proba-
ble, was in the days of John Knox, and nearly contempo-
rary with that noted enactment of the Puritans in England,
when simple fornication was subjected to punishment.
L.
Ladies will sooner pardon want of sense than want of
manners.
Likeness begets love, yet proud men hate one another.
Like blood, like good, and like age, make the happiest
marriages.
Long-tongued wives go long with bairn.--Scotch.
Love me little, love me long.
Lat.-Nihil vehemens durabile.
Love and pease-pottage will make their way.
Love and lordship like no fellowship.
Love may gain all, time destroys all, and death ends all.
-Italian.
Love and pride stock Bedlam.
Love is the loadstone of love.
Love, knavery, and necessity, make men good orators.
Love is without prudence, and anger without counsel.---.
Italian.
"I could not love, I'm sure,
One who in love were wise."-COWLEY.
Love can neither be bought nor sold; its only price is
love.--Italian.
Love is as warm among cottagers as courtiers.


'WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 119
M.
Many a time have I got a wipe with a towel, but never a
daub with a dish-clout before.--Scotch.
The answer of a sauey girl, when teased by an unworthy
suitor.
More belongs to marriage, than four bare legs in a bed.
Marriage is honourable, but house-keeping chargeable.
Many kiss the child for the nurse's sake.
Marry your sons when you will, your daaghters when you
can.
Marry your daughters betimes, lest they marry themselves.
: -Spanish.
Marry, marry! and who is to manage the house !--Span.
Said of foolish young persons, who lalk of marriage before
they are capable to undertake the cares and expenses of
wedlock.
Marry in haste and repent ut leisure.
Man is fire, and woman tow; the devil comes and sets
them in a blaze.-Spanish.
Maids want nothing but husbands, and when they have
got them, they want every thing.
Many a one for land, takes a fool by the hand.
Many blame the wife for their own thriftless life.--Scotch,
My son's my son till he hath got him a wife,
My daughter's my daughter all days of her life.
N.
Ne'er seek a wife till ye ken what to do with her.--Scotch.
Never was a prison fair, or a mistress foul.
French.-Il n'y a point de belle prison, ni de laides amours.
Next to no wife, a good wife is best.
Novelty is always handsome.--Italian.
New amours make us forget the old.-Italian.
Nineteen nay-says of a maiden are half a grant.Scotch.
Not so ugly as to be frightful, nor so beautiful as to kill.
--Spanish.
No woman is ugly when she is drest.
0.
Observe the face of the wife to know the husband's cha-
racter.-Spanish.


120 WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
Old women's gold is not ugly.
A wipe for those who are on the scent after old Dowagers
with heavy purses.
One love drives out another.
Old maids lead apes in hell.
One year of joy, another of comfort, and all the rest of
content.
A marriage wish.
Paint and patches give offence to the husband, hopes to
the gallant.
Play, women, and wine, undo men laughing,
Prettiness makes no pottage.
· She was a neat dame that washed the ass's face.
She is neither maid, wife, nor widow.
She had rather kiss than spin.
She who often looks at her face in the glass, often thinks
of her tail. .
Coquet and coy at once her air,
Both study'd, though both seem neglected ;
Careless she is, with artri care
Affecting, to seem unatfected.--CONGREVE.
She that is born a beauty is half married.
She that has an ill husband shows it in her dress.
Smoke, raining into the house, and a scolding wife, will
make a man run out of'doors.
Saith Solomon the wise, A good wife's a good prize.?
She who is born handsome is born married.
Ital. Che nasce bella, nasce maritata.
Sometimes you are like a dog and cat, and sometimes
like the monkey and his clog.
Since you wrong'd me, you never had a good thought of
me.
She spins a good web, who brings up her son well.---
Spanish
She is well married who has neither mother-in-law nor
sister-in-law by her husband.--Spanish.
In Spain, they entertain no great opinion of this class of
kindre!


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
127
Take heed, girl, of the promise of a man, for it will run
like a crab.--Spanish.
That is, backwards.
The bride goes to her marriage bed, but knows not what
shall happen to her. Hehrew.
. The woman who hag a bad husband makes a confidant of
her maid.-Spanish.
The bitch that I mean is not a dog.
The society of ladies is a school of politeness.
The rich widow cries with one eye, and rejoices with the
other.-Spanish.
The love of women is like wine; the evening it is good,
• the morning it is spoiled.--Italian.
The fairer the hostess, the fouler the reckoning.
French-Belle hostesse, c'est un mal pour la bourse.
The remedy for love ismland between.--Spanish.
To a foolish woman, a violin is more pleasing than a dis.
taff.-Italian.
There is no better looking-glass than a true friend.
The first wife is matrimony, the second company, and the
third heresy.--Italian.
The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.
This is one of the " learned aphorisms," which Mr. D’Israe-
li says the husbands of former days had inscribed on their
trenchers, to remind them of the sort of policy necessary
10 govern their dames. The same elegant writer informg
us that, much later even than the reign of Elizabeth, our
ancestors had proverbs always before them, on every thing
which had room for a piece of advice on it. They had
them painted on their tapestries, stamped on the most or.
dinary utensils, on the blades of their knives, the borders.
of their plates, and conned them out of goidsmith's
rings." The usurer, in Robert Green's “Groat's worth
of Wit,” compressed all his philosophy into the circle of
his ring. having learnt sufficient Latin 10 understand the
proverbial motto of, “ Tu tibi cura."
The cunning wife makes her husband her apron.-
Spanish.
The more women look in their glasses, the less they look
to their houses. 1
Three women and a goose make a market. Tolian,


322 WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK.
Tell it to her once, and the devil will tell it to her ten
times.--Spanish.
Tell a woman she is beautiful, and the devil will often
put her in mind of it.
They were both equally bad, so the devil put them to-
gether.
To preserve a friend, three things are required; to hon-
I our him present, praise him absent, and assist him in
his necessities.- Italian.
The mother knows best whether the child be like the
father.
There is many a good wife that can't sing and dance well.
Three daughters and a mother are four devils for the fa-
ther.-Spanish.
There is one good wife in the country, and every man
thinks he hath her.
There is no mischief in the world done, but a woman is
always one.
To kiss a man's wife, or wipe his knife, is but a thankless,
office,
W
.
Women grown bail are worse than men; because the
corruption of the best turns to the worst.
Women and children's wishes are the ambition of only
weak men.
Women and wine intoxicate the young and old.-Italian.
"Beauty, though dangerous, hath strange power !"
Women commend a modest man, but like him not.
“Not much he kens, I ween, of woman's breast,
Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs ;
What careth she for hearts when once possess'd ?
Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes;
But not too humbly, or she will despise
Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes ;
Disguise even tenderness, if thou art wise ;
Brisk confidence still best with woman copes,
Pique her, and soothe in turns, soon Passion crowns thy
· hopes.-CHILDE HAROLD.
Wife and children are bills of charges.
Who feels love in his breast, feels a spur in his limbs.--
Italien.
Where did the girl lose her maiden-head? Where she
spoke ill and heard worse.--Spanish.


WOMEN, LOVE, AND WEDLOCK. 123
We bachelors grin, but you married men laugh till you-
hearts ache.
When a couple are newly married, the first month is ho-
ney-moon, or smick smack; the second is hither and
thither; the third is thwick thwack; the fourth, the
devil take them that brought thee and I together.
When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out at the
window.
When the good man's from home, the good wife's table is
soon spread.
Who has a bad wife, has purgatory for a neighbour.-Ital.
Who is a cuckold, and conceals it, carries coals in his bo-
som.-Spanish.
Who weds ere he be wise, shall die ere he thrives.
Wine and wenches empty men's purses.
Women, wine, and horses, are dangerous ware.--Italian.
Women must have their wills while they live, because
they make none when they die.
Women, priests, and poultry, have never enough.
Ital.-Donne preti, et polli, non son mai sat olli.
Women and linen look best by candle light.
French.-Elle est belle a lachandelle, mais le jour gate
tout.
Women and dogs set men together by the ears.
Women are wise on a sudden, fools on premeditation.-.
Ilalian.
Women in mischief are wiser than men.
Who hath a scold hath sorrow to his sops.
Who thinks a woman hath no merit but her money, de.
serves to be made a cuckold.
Who more ready to call her neighbour-scold, than the
greatest scold in the parish ?
Ladies of pleasure affect not you, but your money,
While the tall maid is stooping, the little one hath swept
the house,
Women laugh when they can and weep when they will.
Works and not words are the proof of love.--Spanish.
Who takes an eel by the tail, and a woman by her word,
may say that he holds nothing.- Italian.
Y.
You may know a foolish woman by her finery.
Ital.-Femme sotte, se cognoit a la cotte.


124
HEALTH AND DIET.
You need not marry; you have troubles enough with-
out it.
HEALTH AND DIET.
A man has often more trouble to digest meat than to get
meat.
A rich mouthful, a heavy groan.-Spanish.
Alluding to the gout and other disterapers produced by epi-
curean living.
A glutton was never generous to others.-Gaelic.
A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart,
and a lady's hand.
An old physician, a young lawyer.
The first is supposed to be more skilful, from greater expe-
rience; and the last will be most zealous in the cause of
his client, from a desire to distinguish himself.
After dinner, sit awhile;
After supper walk a mile.
This old distich is not applicable to the fashion of the present
day, when we often sup at midnight, or after ; it might do
in the olden time, when our ancestors breakfasted at six in
the morning, dined at eleven, and supped at four or five
o'clock in the afternoon a walk in the cool of the evening,
would then be conducive to health !
An egg, and to bed.
B.
Better a good dinner than a fine coat.-French.
A Burgundian proverb, which one would suppose of English
extraction. The Burgundians are great gormandisers and
shabby dressers ; they are commonly said to have“ bow.
els of silk and velvet;" that is, all their silk and velvet go
to their guts.
Better wait on the cook than the doctor.Scotch,


HEALTH AND DIET.
125
Better lose a supper than have a hurdred physicians-
Af Spanish,
Better belly burst than good drink lost.
This is John Bull's own ; it is clearly of native growth. It
affords a curious contrast with the preceding one from the
Spanish, and strikingly illustrates the characteristic differ-
ence of the two nations.
Bread that sees, wine that sparkles, cheese that weeps.
Be long sick, that ye may be soon hale.-Scotch.
Better half a loaf than no bread.
Bitter pills may have blessed effects.-Scoich.
Bread at pleasure, drink by measure.--French.'
Bread of a day, ale of a month, and wine of a year.
C.
Children and chickens must be always picking.
D
Drink wine and have the gout; drink none and have
it too.
Diet cures more than the lancet.
Spanish.-Mas cura la dieta, que la lanceta.
In two things men most commonly show their folly ; going to
law, and neglect of their health. One ruins their fortunes.
the other deprives them of the means of enjoying them.
With respect to health, the proverb is a good recipe, but it
ought to have included exercise. Diet and exercise are the
two physicians of Nature, and by a due attention to them,
ninety-nine diseases out of a hundred may be averted or
cured. Medicine itself is but the quack of these natural
doctors, and attempts, by a shorter but artificial process,
to do what regimen alune would accomplish. Those who
live high should exercise freely The hon virant may rely
on the advice of an en inent physician to the Dutchess of
Portsmouth ; “ You must eat l ss; take more exercise ;
take physic : or be sick." Over-feeding is the chief cause of
those nervous affections and irritable humours, which first
make men mad, and then drive them to self-destruction. It
is a pity the nature of the animal economy is not more ge-
nerally under tood. Thousands are miserable for the want
of some little Manual on the preservation of health Chil-
dren suffer as well as grown persons, and indulgent but ig-
norant parents ruin the constitutions of their offspring by
improper treatment and nursing. It is hoped a hint on this
subject will be taken by those endeavouring to benefit the
public and themselves by cheap publications.


HEALTH AND DIET
127
If the doctor cures, the sun sees it ; but if he kills, the
earth hides it. -Scotch.
If it were not for the belly the back might wear gold.
It is easier to fill a glutton's belly than his eye.
It is a great pleasure to eat, and have nothing to pay.
Spanish.-Gran placer, no escotar y comer.
If physic do not work, prepare for the kirk.
M.
Medicines are not meant to live on.
0.
Of all meat in the world, drink goes the best down.
Of wine the middle, of oil the top, and of honey the bot-
tom is best.
One hour's sleep before midnight, is worth two after.
A more wholesome, if not a truer maxim, than that of Eras-
mus :
“Nunquam dulcior somnus, quam post exortem solem."
Often and a little eating makes a man fat.
It is on this system our pugilists are trained for their ren-
contres They eat often and sparingly, and take moderate
rest and exercise between each meal. By this simple pro-
cess, the wind is strengthened, a corkiness and elasticity
of motion acquired, and the whole frame invigorated,
which enables them to give and take a great deal of ham-
mering, and, also, speedily recover from their bruises. It
is an admirable system for those who wish to renovate a
constitution, weakened by too much indulgence.
P.
Physicians rarely take medicine.--Italian.
Nor lawyers go to law--two hints not unworthy of attention.
Plenty makes dainty.---Scotch.
S.
Sickness is felt, but health not at all. .
T.
Temperance, employment, and a cheerful spirit, are the
great preservers of health.
That is not always good in the maw that is sweet in the
mouth.
The difference between the poor man and the rich is, that


128
HEALTH AND DIET.
the poor walks to get meat for his stomach, the rich a
stomach for his meat.
The full stomach loatheth the honey-comb, but to the
hungry every thing is sweet.
The morning to the mountain, the evening to the foun-
tain.
Ital. La mattina al ponte, e la sera al fonte.
The choleric drinks, the melancholic eats, the phlegmatic
sleeps.
The belly bath no ears.
· Lat.-Venter non habet aures.
The nearer the bone, the sweeter the flesh.
The head awe feet keep warm, the rest will take no harm.
They who would be young when they are old, must be
old when they are young
To a full belly all meat is bad.-Italian.
The epicure puts his purse into his belly, and the miser
his belly into his purse.
The first dish pleaseth all.
The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr.
Merryman.
"Tis good to walk till the blood appears on the cheek, but
not the sweat on the brow. ---Spanish.
Two ill meals make the third a glutton.
W.
We are usually the best men, when in the worst health.
When bread is wantiny, oaten cakes are excellent.---Span.
Who pups well, sleeps well.
Ital-Chi ben cena, qen dorma.
With respect to the gout, the physician is but a lout.-
-Spanish,
Who steals an old man's supper does him po harm.
Wine wears no breeches.-French.
It usually loosens the tongue and gives the liberty of speech.
For this reason, ladies generally withdraw, when the wine
comes on the table, not choosing to be present with such
an undecent guest.
Wine is a turn-coat ; first a friend, then an enemy.
Y.
You have lost your own stomach and found a dog's


130
HUSBANDRY AND WEATHER.
le pelerin.” A red evening and a white morning rejoice
the pilgrim. A proverb I have never observed to fail.
After a famine in the stall,
Comes a famine in the hall.--Somersetshire.
As the days lengthen, so the cold strengthens.
This rule in gardening never forget :-
" To sow dry and set wet.”
Good husbandry is good divinity. Italian.
Calm weather in June, sets corn in tune.
Jf the first of July be rainy weather,
'Twill rain more or less for forty days together.
By the correction of the calendar, in the reign of George II.
St. Swithin's day is the fifteenth of July. This circum.
stance afforded much amusement to HORACE WALPOLE,
who used to ridicule the soothsayers and observers of par-
ticular days; saying it was not likely that St. Swithin, or
any other Saint, would accomodate themselves to English
acts of parliament. With the exception, however, of the
present year, St, Swithin has rarely failed in his annual
libation. The origin of the proverb is a monkish legend.
In the year 865, St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, to
which rank he was raised by King Ethelwolfe the Dane,
dying, he was canonized by the Pope. He was singular
for desiring to be buried in the open church-yard, and not
in the chancel of the minister, as was usual with other
bishops, which request was complied with ; but the monks:
on his being canonized,taking it into their head that it was
disgraceful for the Saint to be in the open church-yard, re-
solved to move his body into the choir, which was to be
done, with solemn procession, on the fifteenth of July. It
rained, however so violently on that day, and for forty days
succeeding, as had hardly ever been known, which made
them set aside their design as heretical and blasphemous;
and instead, they erected a chapel over his grave, at which
many miracles are said to have been wrought.
A dry summer ne'er made a dear peck.---Scotch.
Corn and horn go together: when corn is cheap, cattle
are not dear.
A cherry year,-a merry year,
A plum year--a dumb year.
The third of April,
Comes in the cuckoo and nightingale.
A long harvest and little corn.
Sow wheat in dirt, and rye in dust.


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
A.
A PLYMOUTH cloak.--Devonshire.
A bludgeon, walking stick, or staff; the usual cloak or great
coat of a sailor. As Plymouih is chiefly inhabited by sea.
fairing persons, the proverb has been fathered on that place,
though it belongs as much to Portsmouth, Hull, Chatham,
or any other sea-port.
Ås mad as the baiting bull of Stamford.-Lincolnshire.
William, Earl Warren, lord of this town in the time of King
John, standing upon the walls of the castle at Stamford,
saw two bulls in the meadow fighting for a cow, till all the
butchers' dogs pursued one of them, maddened by the noise
and multitude, quite through the town. This fight so plea-
sed the Earl, that he gave all those meadows called the castle
medaows, where first this bull-duel began, for a common
to the bucthers of the town (after the firstgrass was eaten),
on condition they annually find a mad bull to be baited,
the day six weeks before Christmas-day.
A Barnwell ague.-Cambridgeshire.
A nameless disease. Barnwell is a villiage near Cambridge,
famous for the residence of ladies of pleasure, attending
the University.-GROSE.
A Lambeth doctor.--Surrey.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has, it is said, the power of
conferring the degree of Doctor of Divinity; this was some-
times done as a matter of favour, without examination : like
the honours occasionally conferred by some of the North-
ern Universities.
As wise as a man of Gotham.-Nottinghamshire.
Gotham lies in the south-west angle of Nottinghamshire, and
is noted for nothing so much as the story of its wise men,
who attempted to hedge in the cukoo. At Court-hill, in this
parish, Grose says, there is a bush; that still bears the
name of cuckoo-bush ; and there is an ancient book full of
the blunders of the Gothamites. Whence a man of Gotham
is periphrasis for a simpleton.
A cockney.-London.
Å very ancient nick-name for a citizen of London. Ray says


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
133
an interpretation of it is, a young person coaxed, or cocka
ered, delicately brought up, so as to be unable to bear the
least' hardship. Another, a person ignorant of the terms
of rural economy; such as a young citizen, who, having
been ridiculed for calling the neighing of a horse, laugh-
ing, and told that was called neighing, next morning, to
show instruction was not thrown away upon him, exclaim-
ed, how that cock neighs! whence the citizens of London
have ever since been called cock-neighs, or cockneys.
Arch-deacon Nares, in his “Glossary," derives the term
from cookeru. Le pais de cocagne, in French, means a coun-
try of good cheer: in old French, coquaine. Cocagna, in
Italian, has the same meaning. Both might be derived
from Coquina ; the famous country described by Balthazar
Bonifacius, “ where the hills were made of sugar candy!"
The cockney mentioned by Shakspeare, appears to have
been a cook, as she was making a pie. .
“ Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels, when she
put them into the paste alive.”--LEAR 11 4.
Yet it appears to denote simplicity, since the fool adds,-
“'Twas her brother, that in pure kindness to his horse,
buttered his hay.”
Whatever may be the origin of this term, we at least learn
from the following verse, attributed to Hugh Bigot, Earl of
Norfolk, that it was in use in the time of King Henry II.
" Was I in my castle at Bungay,
Fast by the river Waveney, i
I would not care for the king of Cockney :"
i. e. the king of London.
The King of the Cocknies occurs among the regulations for
the sports and shows formerly held in the middle Temple,
on Childermas-day, when he had his officers, a marshall,
constable, &c.
A man of Kent.
All the inhabitants of Kent, east of the river Medway, are
called “Men of Kent," from the story of their having re-
tained their ancient privileges, particularly those of gavel-
kind, by meeting William the Conqueror, at Swanscomb-
bottom; each man, besides his arms, carrying a green
bough in his hand : by this means concealing their num-
bers, under the appearance of a moving wood. The rest of
the inhabitants of the county are stiled “Kentish-men."
A Yorkshire way-bit.
I should be a wee bit; wee, in the Yorkshire and northern
dialects, signifies little. It means an over-plus, not'account-
ed in the reckoning, which sometimes proves as much an
12


134
ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
all the rest. Ask a countryman in Yorkshire the distance
to a particular place, his answer will generally be-80 me.
ny miles and a wee-bit ; which wee-bit is often larger than
the miles reckoned.
“ He hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard."
Merry Wives of Windsor. 1. 4.
As fine as Kerton on Credinton spinning.–Devonshire.
As a proof of the fineness of Crediton spinning, it is related
that one hundred and forty threads of woolen yarn, spun
in that town, were drawn together through the eye of a
tailor's needle; which needle and threads were to be seen
for many years in Watling-street, London, in the shop of
one Dumscombe, at the sign of the Golden Bottle. The
discoveries, however, of Watt and Ark-wright, have ena.
bled the manufactures of the present day far to excel an-
cient Crediton in the fineness of spinning.
All goeth down Gutter-Lane.- London.
The right spelling is Gurthurn-lane, a place formerly inha-
bited by goldbeaters, and leading out of Cheapside, east of
Foster-lane. The proverb is applied to those who spend
all in drunkenness and gluttony, mere “belly gods:" Gut.
· ter being Latin for the throat.
A Welch bait.-Welch.
A short stop, but no refreshment. Such baits are frequently
given by the natives of the principality to their keffels, or
horses, particularly after climbing a hill. .
A Scarboroigh warning:-Yorkshire.
That is—none at all, but a sudden surprise. Alluding to an
event in 1557 ; when Thomas Stafford seized un Scarbo-
rough Castle, before the townsmen had the least notice of
his approach.
A Kent-street dstress.-Surrey.
A mode of distress formerly practised on the poor inhabi-
tants of Kent-street; on non-payment, the rent-collector's
took away the doors of the defaulters.
As iame as St. Giles, Cripplegate,-London.
St. Giles was by birth an Athenian, of noble extraction and
great estate: becoming lame, he, for his greater mortifica-
tion, refused to be cured. He is deemed the patron of
cripples, and his churches are mostly in the suburbs. Crip-
plegate was so called before the Conquest, from cripples
begging there, for which they plead custom, from the time
the lame man begged alms of Peter and John, at the gate of
the Temple.


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS. 135
A Scottish-man, and a Newcastle grindstpne, travel all
the world over.-Northumberland."
All Ilchester is gaol.-Somersetshire.
Intimating that the people of the town are as hard-hearted
as their gaoler; an imputation falsified by some recent
transactions.
A 'squire of Alsatia.-London.
A spendthrift, or sharper, inhabiting places formerly privi-
leged from arrests. Such 'were White-Friars, and the
Mint, in Southwark ; the former called Upper, the latter,
Lower Alsatia. Sir Walter Scott has perpetuated the me-
mory of these once noted places, in his "Fortunes of Ni-
gel.
A Drury-lane vestal.--London.
A London Jury; hang half, and save half - London.
This was intended to reflect on the tender mercies of a Lon-
don Jury, as aiming at more despatch than justice, and ac-
quitting half and hanging half. Such a mode of adminis-
iering justice, however, has greatly changed, as any one
may satisfy himself by an hour's attendance at the Old
Bailey.
A knight of Cales, a gentleman of Wales, and a laird of
the North Countree;
A geoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, will buy them
out all three.-Kent.
The knights of Cales were made by Robert Earl of Essex, A.
D. 1596, to the number of sixty; many of whom were
of slender fortunes, though of great birth. The Northern
lairds, and the numerousness and penury of Welch
gentlemen, need no illustration. Yeomen were indepen-
dent farmers, occupying their own land, killing their own
mutton, and wearing the fleeces of their own sheep, spun
in their houses. Those of Kent were famous for their riches.
B.
Bristol-milk.-Somerselshire.
That is-sherry, a Spanish white wine. The true name of
this wine is sherris, which it derives from Xeres, a town
in the province of Andalusia, where it is made.
Banbury veal, cheese, and cakes.- Oxfordshire.
The cheese of this place was remarkable for its richness and
fineness, so long back as the time of Shakspeare, who makes
one of his characters in Henry IV. call Falstaff, a “ Ban-
bury cheese." Banbury cakes are also excellent, as well
as veal.


136
ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the bet.
ter manger.-Hampshire.
Edington, Bishop of Winchester, was the author of this say-
ing, rendering it the reason of his refusal to be removed to
Canterbury, though preferred thereto. For though Can-
terbury be graced with a higher honour, Winchester is
the wealthier see.
Cantabridgia petit cquales, or æqualia.
That is, as Fuller expounds it, either in respect of their com-
mons, all of the same mess having equal share; or in re*
spect of extraordinaries, they all club alike; or in respect
of degree, all of the same degree being " fellows well met."
Corleton bears.--Cheshire.
Some years ago, the clerk of Congleton having taken the old
church Bible, or had it given to him, as his perquisite, sold
it to buy a bear, in order to bait him. From this, as the
story tells, proceeds the name of Congleton bears; which
will presently set the town about his ears, if a stranger han.
pen to mention it.
D.
Deal, Dover, and Harwich,
The Devil gave with his daughter in marriagc;
And, by a codicil to his will,
He added Helvoet and the Brill.-Kent.
A satirical squib thrown at the inkeepers of these places, in
return for the many impositions practised on travellers, as
well natives as strangers.-Applicable to most sea ports.
Dover-court, all speakers and no hearers.--Essex.
Dover-court is a village about three miles west of Harwich,
to which its church is the mother church. Here a court is
annually held, which, as it consists chiefly of seamen, the
irregularity described in the proverb is likely to prevail.
E
Elden hole wants filling ---Derbyshire.
Said of a great liar who boasts of his wonderful exploits.
Eco hops.
Calves, great numbers of which are brought alive in carts to
the London market..


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
137
First hang and draw,
Then hear the cause by Lidford law. -Devonshire.
Lidford is a lit:le and poor, but ancient corporation, in Devon-
shire with large privileges, where a court of Stannaries
was formerly kept. The proverb is supposed to allude to
some absurd determination made by the Mayor and Cor-
poration, who were formerly but mean and illiterate per
Bons.
“ I oft have heard of Lydford law,
How in the morning they hang and draw,
And sit in judgment after ;
At first I wondered at it much,
But since I fynd the reason such
As yt deserves no laughter."
Vide Westcot's History of Devonshire,
G. .
Grantham gruel! nine grits and a gallon of water.-Lin-
colnshire.
Poor gruel, indeed! bearing very hard on the liberality of the
good people of Grantham.
Go to Rumford, to have your buttocks new bottomed.-
Essex.
Formerly, Rumford was famous for breeches making; and a
man going to Rumford, was thus jocosely advised to pro-
vide himself with a pair of new breeches.
Go to Battersea, to be cut for the simples.--London.
The origin of this saying, which is applied to people not over:
stocked with wit, appears to be this. Formerly, the Lon-
don apothecaries used to make a summer excursion to Bat.
tersea, to see the medicinal herbs, called simples, which
abounded in the neighbourhood, cut at the proper season.
Hence, it became proverbial to tell a foolish person to go to
Battersea to be cut for a simple, the equivoque being on the
word simple, alias simpleton.
H.
He has the Newcastle burr in his throat.-Northumber-
land. .
"The people of Newcastle, Morpeth, and their environs, have
a guttural pronunciation like that called in Leicestershire
warling, none of them being able to pronounce the letter R.
12*


110
ENGLISHI LOCAL PROVERBS.
M.
Measter's Yorkshire too.-Middlesex.
Eounded on the well-known story of the Yorkshire hostier.
0.
Oxford knives, London wives.- Oxfordshire. .
Ironically insinuating that their appearance exceeds their
renl worth ; that the Oxford knives were better to look at
than to cut with, and that the London wives had more beau-
y and good-breeding than housewifely qualities.
P.
Paddington Fair.-London.
An execution at Tyburn; which place is in or near the pa.
rish of Paddington.
Putney.---Surrey.
According to vulgar tradition, says Grose, the churches of
Putney and Fulham were built by two sisters, who had
but one hammer between them, which they interchanged
by throwing it across the river, on a word agreed between
them; thuse on the Surrey side made use of the word Put-
it-nigh! those on the opposite shore Heave it full-home!!
whence thu churches, and from them the villages, were
called Put-nigh and Full-home, since corrupted to Putney
and Fulham.
She hath given Lawton gate a clap.--Cheshire.
Said of one with child, and going to London to conceal it.
Lawton is the way to London from several parts of Che-
shire.
Stabbed with a Bridport dagger.-Dorsetshire.
That is, hanged. A great quantity of hemp is grown about
this town; and, on account of its superior qualities, Fuller
says, there was an ancient statute, now disused, that the
cables for the royal navy should be made thereabouts.
St Giles's breed; fat, ragged, and saucy.- London.
Ragged and saucy the inhabitants of this parish still are, but
their embonpoint has vanished in “ blue ruin.”
Stopford law; no stuke no draw.-Cheshire.
Such only as contribute to the liquor, are expected to drink.
Applied also to wagers, when, if nothing is staked or put
town, nothing is allowed to be taken up..


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
141
T.
The nun of Sion with the friar of Sheen.London.
Although the river Thames runs between these two monaster
ries, it is a tradition, the above holy personages had a love
affair, by means of a tunnel or subterraneous communica-
tion.
To take Hector's cloak.-Northumberland.
That is, to deceive a friend who confides in his fidelity. When
Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, was defeated in
the rebellion he had raised against Queeen Elizabe
hid himself in the house of one Hector Armstrong, having
confidence he would be true to him; who, notwithstanding,
for money betrayed him to the regent of Scotland.
The fire of London was a punishment for gluttony.--.
London.
It began in Pudding-lane, and ended in Pie-corner!
The Isle of Wight, hath no monks, no lawyers, nor foxes,
-Hampshire.
A proverb with more mirth than truth in it. The remains of
the monasteries of the black monks at Carisbrook, and
white ones at Quarrer, confute one part of the saying.
“ Indeed," as Grose observes, “that there should be a
fertile, healthy, and pleasant spot, without monks ; a rich
place without lawyers; and a country abounding with
lambs, without foxes ; is evidently an improbability":
The Covent-garden ague. London.
Many brothels, under the denomination of bagnios, wero"
formerly kept in this parish-some, it is said, are still re-
maining.
To give one a Cornish hug.--Cornwall.
A Cornish hug is a lock in the art of wrestling, peculiar to
the Cornish men, who have always been famous for their
skill in that manly exercise.
The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dag-
ger.
To keep them as far as possible from his nose. Northamp-
ton being eighty miles from the sea, the oysters brought
thither, before the improvement of turnpike roads, were
generally stale.
The Vicar of Bray, will be Vicar of Bray still.--Berkshire.
Bray is a well-known village in Berkshire ; the vivacious vi-
car of which, living under Henry VIII. Qucen Mary, and


112
ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
Queen Elizabeth, was first a papist, then a protestant ;
then a papist, and then a protestant again. Being laxed
for a turncoat: "Not so," said he, "for I always kept mv
principle; which is this, to live and die Vicar of Bray!"
To this, Fuller adds a sentence, which has not yet lost its
application. “Such are men now-a-days," says he "who
though they cannot turn the wind, they turn their mills,
and set them so, that wheresoever it bloweth, their grain
should certainly be grinded.”
This is the way to Begyar's-bush.-Huntingdonshire.
Applied to persons leading dissolute and improvident lives,
tending to poverty. Beggar's bush being a tree formerly
knewn on the left hand of the London road, from Hunting-
don to Caxton. This punning adage is said to be of royal
origin; applied by king James I., to Sir Francis Bacon,
he having over-generously rewarded a poor man for a tri-
ding present.
They may claim the bacon at Dunmow.-Essez.
Alluding to the well-known custom, instituted in the manor
of Little Dunmow, in Essex, by Lord Fitzwalter, who lived
in the reign of flenry III. which was, that any wedded
couple, who, after being married a year and a day, would
come to the priory, and kneeling on two sharp-pointed
stones, before the prior and convent, swear, that, during
that time, they had neither repented of their bargain, nox
bad any dissension, should have a gammon of bacon. The
record mentions several persons who claimed and received
is; the last I find mentioned is, A. D. 1764, when Mr. and
Mrs. Liddal, of the Green Dragon, Harrowgate, took the
fitch of bacon oath.. The custom ceased either for want
of bacon or claimants.
To Denshire, or to Devonshire land.-Devonshire.
To pare the turf from off the surface, and lay it in heaps and
burn it; the ashes have been found greatly to enrich bar-
Fen land by means of the salt they contain. It was pro-
bably first practised in Devonshire: it is now general on
barren spongy lands, throughout England, previous to
ploughing.
6 The same again," quoth Mark, of Bell-grave.- Leices-
tershire.
Alluding to an ancient milita-officer in Queen Elizabeth's
time, who, exercising his company before the lord lieuten-
ant, was so abasned, that after giving'the first word of
command he could recollect no more, but repeatedly or-
dered them to do the same again!


ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
143
The weaver's beef of Colchester.--Essex.
That is, sprats, caught thereabouts, and brought there in in,
credible abundance; whereon the poor are frequently
fed.-GROSE.
The devil will not come into Cornwall for fear of being
put into a pie.-Cornwall.
The people of Cornwall make pies of almost every eatable,
as squab-pie, herby-pie, pilchard-pie, muggetty pie, &c.
The mayor of Altringham lies in bed while his breeches
are mending.–Cheshire.
As the mayor of every other town must do if he have but
one pair, as was said to be the case with this worshipful
magistrate. .
Tenterden steeple's the cause of Goodwin sands.-Kent.
Used when an absurd reason is given for any thing in ques.
tion; the origin of which is differently explained. One.
account says, an old man being asked the cause of the ri.
sing of this sand, said, that he remembered the building
of Tenterden steeple, and that, before it was built, there
was no talk of any flats or sands stopping up the haven;
therefore Tenterden steeple was the cause of the destruc-
tion of Sandwich harbour, in this he was right, had he
been allowed to finish his explanation. Time out of mind
money was collected in the county to bank out the sea,
and deposited in the hands of the bishop of Rochester:
but the sea having been quiet for many years, the bishop
applied the money to the building of a steeple, and endow-
ing the church of Tenterden By this diversion of the
funds, the sea afterwards broke in, overflowing Earl Good-
win's lands. So that, by a ceatain figure of speech, Ten.
terden steeple was the cause of Goodwin sands.
The visible church; or Harrow-on-the-Hill.-Middleser.
King Charles the Second, speaking on the topic then much
agitated among divines of different persuasions, namely,
which was the visible church, gave it in favour of Harrow-
on-the-Hill; which, he said he always saw, go where he
would,
w.
Weeping Cross.
Archdeacon Nares says, he has found three places so called,
and probably there are more: these crosses being places,
where penitents particularly offered their devotions. Of
the three places, now retaining the name, one is between
Oxford and Banbury; the second near Stafford, where thn


144
ENGLISH LOCAL PROVERBS.
road turns off to Walsall; the third, near Shrewsbury.
To return by Weeping Cross was proverbial for deeply la-
menting an undertaking, and repenting of it; like many
other allusions to local names.
"He that goes out with often losse.
At last comes home by Weeping Crosse."
Howell's English Proverbs.
Welch ambassador.
A jocular name for the cuckoo, probably from its migrating
hither from Wales.
« Thy sound is like the cuckoo, the Welch ambassador."
Trick to Catch, Act iv.
Wellington round-head.--Somersetshire.
Proverbial formerly in Taunton, for a violent parliamenta-
rian, and the town now gives the ducal title to a celebra-
brated Tory general,
When the daughter is stolen, shut Pepper Gate.-Cheshire.
Pepper Gate was formerly a postern on the east side of the
city of Chester. The mayor of the city having his daugh-
ter stolen away by a young man, through the gate, whilst
she was playing at ball with the other maidens, his wor-
ship, out of revenge, caused it to be closed up.
Wiltshire Moon-raker.Wiltshire.
Some Wiltshire clowns, as the story goes, seing the moon in
a pond, attemped to rake it out.
When do you fetch the five pounds ?-Dorsetshire.
A gibe at the Poolites. A rich merchant of Poole is said to
have left five pounds, to be given every year, to set up any
man, who had served his apprenticeship in that town, on
condition, that he should produce a certificate of his hones-
ty, properly authenticated. The bequest, it is said, has not
yet been claimed, and it is a common water joke to ask the
crew of a Poole ship’“ Whether any one has yet received
the five pounds ?"
Y.
You were born at Høgs-Norton - Oxfordshire.
« Properly," says Ray, " called Hoch Norton," but it is now
Hook Norton : a village, whose inhabitants were so rustical
in their behaviour, that clownish and boorish people were
said to be be born there.
Hou are all for the Hoistings, or Hustings.-- London.


FAMILIAR PHRASES, &c.
This unfortunate class of mortals are unhappy two ways; first,
they are branded with an appellation which clearly does
es not
belong to them ; secondly, they have to bear, without re-
dress, (except occasionally a little solid puddingin the shape
of damages) the scorn and infamy of a crime which others
have comitted.
* Ever since the reign of King Charles (I.” says Swift,
“ the alderman is made a cnckold, the deluded virgin is de-
bauched, and adultery and fornication are committed be-
hind the scenes.”
His bread is buttered on both sides.
A chip of the old block.
He's in the cloth market.
In bed.
To carry coals to Newcastle.
This common and, one would suppose, local proverb, is quo.
ted by D'Israeli, to show that scarcely any remarkable saj.
ing can be considered national, but that every one has some
type or correspondent idea in other languages. In this
instance, the Persians have, "To carry pepper to Hipdos-
tan;" the Hebrews, “ To carry oil to a city of olives :
which is exactly the same idea, clothed in oriental meta-
phor.
.
To burn day light.
Mercutio gives a full explanation of this phrase :
" Come, we burn daylight, ho!”
Rom. Nay, that's not so. Merc. I mean, sir, in delay.”
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.”
Rom. and Jul. 1. 4.
To work for a dead horse.
To play the dog in the manger; not eat yourself, nor let
another eat.
A dog's life--hunger and ease.
To dine with duke Humphrey.
Those were said to dine with duke Humphrey, who having no
dinner to eat, walked out the dinner hour in the body of St.
Paul's church, where, it was erroneously believed, the duke
was buried. The old churh of St. Paul's was the exchange
of former times, and a constant place cf resort and amuse-
ments. Advertisements were fixed up there, bargains made;.
servants hired, and politics discussed. :
To eat the calf in the cow's belly.
To make both ends meet.
Fair play is a jewel ; don't pull my hair
13*


159
FAMILIAR PHRASES, &e.
He pins his faith on anotherman's sleeve.
All is fish that comes to his net.
The Blackguard.
Originally a jocular name given to the lowest menials of the
court, the carriers of coals and wood, turnspits, and la-
bourers in the scullery, who followed the court in its per.
ambulations, and thus became observed. Such is the ori.
gin of this common term.
I have other fish to fry.
'Tis a folly to fret; grief's no comfort.
Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
Go farther and fare worse.
- He cannot say bo to a goose.
A rogue in grain.
It is related that a Welsh curate in the Isle of Grain, on the
borders of Kent, went stark mad, through the force of
drink, and was sorely teased, by his flock , by the young
fry, especially. - Rogues," said the indignant Taffey,
" are to be found in all parish es, but my parishioners are
Rogues in Grain!"
You halt before you are lame. ,
All bring grist to your mill.
To live from hand to mouth.
I'll pledge you.
An expression derived from the times when the Danes bore
sway in England. The old manner of pledging was thus:
the person who was going to drink, asked the person who
sat next him if he would pledge him ? on which, he an.
swering he would, held up a knife, or sword, to guard him
whilst he drank : for, such was the revengeful ferocity of
the Danes, that they would often stab a native with a knife
or dagger, while in the act of drinking. From this origi-
nated the castom of drinking healths.
A Yorkshire tike.
A tike here, means a clown. Tike generally means, in the
Yorkshire dialect, a great dog.
We don't gather figs from thistles.
To harp upor: the same string.
Riding the Stang.
A custom I have often seen practised fin the North of Eng-
land, and, in fact, assisted in: is when a woman has bea
en her husband, and one rides upon a stang or long pole,
where he proclaims, like a herald, the woman's name, and
the nature of her misdemeanor.


FAMILIAR PHRASES, &c. . 151
Too hasty to be a parish clerk.
To hit the nail on the head.
Hobson's choice. .
Aman is said to have Hobson's choice, when he must either
take what is left him, or none at all. Hobson was a noted
carrier in Cambridge in king James's time, who, by carrying
and grazing, raised himself to a great estate, and did much
good in the town, relieving the poor, and building a public
conduit in the market place. It does not appear how the
proverb arose ; but, I think, I have read somewhere, it
originated in the way Hobson let out his horses, compel-
ling his customers to choose that next to the stable door,
and no other.
To hold with the hare, and run with the hounds.
By hook or by crook.
By one way or another. The phrase is very ancient, and er-
roneously ascribed to two learned judges in the time of
Charles I., Hooke and Crooke ; implying that a difficult
cause was to be got either by Hooke or Crooke; by
Brougham or Scarlet, Warton, however, has shown that
the phrase is of older date, and occurs twice in Spenser,
and once in Skelton.
See, how we apples swim!;.
To have a January chick.
To have children in old age.
Give him an inch and he'll take an ell.
Better known than trusted.
Help the lame dogrover the style.
He'll go to law for the wagging of a straw.
He wears the horns.
The notion of Cuckolds wearing horns prevails through all
the modern European languages, and is of four or five hun.
dred years standing. Dr. Burn traces this “crest of cuck-
oldom” to horns worn, as crests, by those who went to the
Crusades, as their armorial distinctions, and the infidelity
of their consorts during their absence ; after the husband
had been away three or four years, and came home in his
martial habiliments, it might be no impossible supposition
that the man who wore the horns was a cuckold. This
agrees with some of the witticisms in our old Plays:
“Why, my good father, what should you do with a wife?
Would you be crested ? Will you needs thrust your head
In one of Vulcan’s helmets? Will you perforce
Wear a city cap, and a court feather ?
"Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, Lond. 1636,


FAMILIAR PHRASES, &c.
153
face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at
which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating
him with a ladle : a smock, displayed on à distaff, is car-
ried before them, as an emblematical standard, denoting
female superiority : the whole accompanied by the matri-
monial music of bull's horns, frying-pans, marrow-bones,
and cleavers. Skimmington is the name of an arrant scold,
most probably from some one famous in that line,
You gather a rod for your own breech,
To row one way and look another.
Fair and softly, as lawyers go to heaven,
To spare at the spigot and let out at the bung-hole.
Abraham-men, or Tom of Bedlam's men, or Bedlam Beg
- gars. .
A set of vagabonds who wandered about the country soon
after the dissolution of the religious houses ; the provision
for the poor in those days being cut off ; and no other sub-
stituted. Hence, probably, the phrase of shamming Abra-
ham, still extant among sailors.--Nares's Glossary.
To sow his wild oats.
To make a stalking horse.
To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
You must take the fat with the lead.
Peter-man.
In the old plays a familiar tern for a fisherman on the Thames
from the occupation of St. Peter.
A tale of a tub.
To stand upon thorns.
Your tongue runs before your wit.
I would not touch him with a pair of tongs,
Raw head and Bloody-bones.
Like Bogle-boe, or other nursery bug-bear, two imaginary
monsters, used to frighten children.
He is up to trap.
I'll trust him no farther than I can fling him.
To kill two birds with one stone.
To wipe a person's nose.
To cheat him.
1.Sfoot, Lieutenant, will thou suffer thy nose ta be wip'd of
this great heir.”—May Day.
To carry two faces under one hood.
To have two strings to one's bow.
What wind blew you hither?
God send you more wit, and me more money,


154
FAMILIAR PHRASES, &c.
.
To have the wolf by the ear.
A man having a doubtful buisiness in hand, which it is equally
hazardous to pursue or abandon; as it is to hold, or let go,
a wolf we have by the ears.
You cannot see wood for trees.
She wears the breeches.
That is, assumes the place and authority of the husband :
“Children rule, old men go to slichool, women wear the
breeches
Anatomy of Melancholg,
Words may pass, but blows fall heavy,
He's Yorkshire.
The Italians say, “E' Spoletino." He is of Spoeleto ; he is.
a cunning blade.
As busy as a bee.
As cold as charity.
As lazy as Ludham's dog, that leaned his head against a.
wall to bark.
As mad as a March hare.
As nice as a puo's hen.
As plain as a pike-staff.
As seasonable as snow in summer.
As deep drinks the goose as the gander.
As demure as if butter would not melt in her mouth. .
As slender in the middle, as a cow in the waist.
As spiteful as an old maid.
As the wind blows, you must set your sail.
He stands like Mump-hazard, who was hung for saying
nothing. Cheshire.
Like the parson of Saddleworth, who could read in no
1 book but his own. -Cheshire.
As lawless as a town bull.
As like as two peas.
As love thinks no evil, so envy speaks no good.
As nimble as a cow in a cage.
As often as we do good, we sacrifice.
As often as thou doest wrong, justice has thee on the score.
As true as the dial to the sun.
As virtue is its own reward, so vice is its own punishment.
As wary as a blind horse.
As welcome as water in one's shoes,
As wilful as a pig that will neither lead por drive..
As a cat loves mustard.
As brisk as a hee in a tar pot


PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
As wise as Waltham's calf, that ran dine miles to suck a
bull.
As busy as a hen with one chicken.
As fine as a lord's bastard.
As full as an egg of meat.
To go out as a snuff.
As green as grass.
As hungry as a church-mouse,
As good beg of a naked man, as a miser.
As good do nothing as to no purpose.
As good eat the devil as the broth he is boiled in.
When Lincoln Minster was finished, the devil is said to have
looked over it with a terrific and malicious grin, as envying,
saith Fuller, man's "costly devotion.”
To love it as the devil loves holy water.
As merry as a cricket.
As good have no time, as make no good use of it,
As good water goes by the mill, as drives it.
As grave as an old gate post.
As grey as grannum's cat.
As kind as a kite; all you can't eat you hide.
As plain as the nose on a man's face.
As poor as Job.
To strut like a crow in a gutter.
As tender as Parnell, that broke her finger in a posset curd
As white as the driven snow.
PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
When Adam delv'd, and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman ?
With a red man read thy read;
With a browo mau break thy bread;
At a pale man draw thy knife,
From a black man keep thy wife.
The higher the pluin tree, the riper the plum ;!
The sicher the cobbler, the blacker his thumb.


156
PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
A man of words and not of deeds,
Is like a garden full of weeds.
Women and wine, game and deceit,
Make the wealth small, and the wants great.
He that buys land, buys many stones ;
He that buys flesh, buys many bones ;
He that buys eggs, buys many shells ;
But he that buys good ale, buys nothing else.
If not by might,
E’en do it by slight.
He's a wise man, who, when he's well, can hold himself so.
Many a little makes a mickle.
Little strokes fell great oaks.
Pay what you owe;
And what you're worth you'll know.
Sometimes words hurt more than swords.
Linen often to water, soon to tatter.
He that would please all, and himself too,
Undertakes what none could do.
He that by the plough would thrive.
Himself must either hold or drive.
There's nothing agrees worse,
Than a prince's heart and a beggar's purse.
Our fathers, who were wondrous wise,
Did wash their throats before they wash'd their eyes.
The shape of a good Greyhound.
A head like a snake, a neck like a drake,
A back like a beam, a belly like a bream,
A foot liko a cat, a tail like a rat.
*As a man lives, so shall he die ;
As a tree falls, so shall it lie.
He that once a good name gets,
May pa-bed, and say he sweats.
An ague in the spring..
Is physic for a king.
The father to the bough,
The son to the plough.


1
PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
The head and feet keep warm,
The rest will take no harm.
First canting, then wooing;
Then dallying, then doing.
We will bear with the stink,
If it bring but in chink.
An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet,
Though they be clad in silk or scarlet.
The counsels that are given in wine,
Will do no good to thee or thine.
Who, more than he is worth, doth spend,
E'en makes a rope his life to end..
A thousand pounds and a bottle of hay,
Are all one at Doomsday.
Be always as merry as ever you can,
For no one delights in a sorrowful man.
Maidens must be mild and meek;
Swift to hear, and slow to speak.
A whip for a fool, and a rod for a school,
Are always in good season.---CARDINAL WOLSET.
The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
The devil was well, the devil a monk was he.
It would make a man scratch where it doth not itch,
To see a man live poor, to die rich.
The Inner Temple rich,
The Middle Temple poor;
Lincoln's Inn for law,
And Gray's Inn for a w
* Manners make the man," quoth William of Wickham.
William of Wickham was a person well known, He was
bishop of Winchester, founded a new college in Oxford,
and Winchester college in Hampshire. This was general-
ly his motto, inscribed frequently on places of his founding
So that it became proverbial.
Who spends more than he sinould,
Hath not to spend when he would.
If a man knew when things would be dear,
He need be a merchant but one year.


158
PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
Would you live an angel's days?
Be honest, just, and wise always,
Enough's as good as a feast,
To one that's not a beast.
Early to bed, and early to rise,
Will make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
If you trust before you try,
You may repent before you die.
Wide will wear,
But narrow will tear.
One God-no more,
But friends good store. '
I never saw an oft-removed tree,
Nor yet an oft-removed-family,
That throve so well as those that settled be...
There are no gains without pains ;
Then plough deep, while sluggards sleep.
Upstart's a churl that gathereth good;
From whence did spring his noble blood ?
He that hath more smocks than shirts in a bucking,
Had need be a man of good forelooking.--CHAUCER
Great wits to madness, sure are near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
His wit got wings, and would have flown,.
But poverty still kept him down.
When a musician has forgot his note,
He makes as though a crumb stuck in his throat.
* The most haste the worst speed,"
Quoth the tailor to his long thread.
The good or ill hope of a good or ill life,
Is the good or ill choice of a good or ill wité.
When I did well, I heard it never;
When I did ill, I heard it ever.
He who will thrive, must rise at five;
He who has thriven, may sleep till seven:
The friend of the table,
Is very variable.--French.


PROVERBIAL RHYMES.
159.
159,
Vessels large may venture more,
But little boats should keep near shore.
A light purse,
Is a heavy curse.
Such envious things the women are,
That fellow flirts they cannot bear.
Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;
Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.
For age and want save while you may;
No morning sun lasts a whole day.
Get what you can, and what you get hold;
'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.
He that gives bis goods before he be dead,
Take up a mallet and knock him on the head.
Taken from the history of one John Bell, who, having given
all his substance to his children, was by them neglected:
after he died there was found a mallet, with this inscription :
-I, John Bell, leaves her a mell, the man to fell,
Who gives all to his bairns, and keep nothing to himsell.
Many estates are spent in the getting
Since women, for tea, forsook spinning and knitting,
And men, for their punch, forsook hewing and splitting
Who dainties love,
Shall beggars prove.
Wise men with pity do behold
Fools worship mules who carry gold.
They that have no other meat,
Bread and butter are glad to eat.
As your wedding-ring wears,
You'll wear off your cares.
Like blood, like goods, and like ages,
Make the happiest marriages.


SUMMARY
OF
ANCIENT PASTIMES, HOLIDAYS,
CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES,
AND
SUPERSTITIONS.


163
PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS.
“What is a gentleman without his recreations?"-Old Play.
In the Games and Dive sions of a people, we may trace
the distinguishing features of the national character; and
the rude pastimes of our ancestors are a practical illus-
tration of he courage and hardiness for which they were
celebrated. Some of the old sports would be incoin pati.
ble with the refinement of the present day, but others are
of a nature less objectionable, and the memory of which
is worthy of preservation. Many of the ancient Games
and Holidays were rural festivities, commemorative of
the return of the seasons, and not only innocent in them-
selves, but conducive to health and good-fellowship. Of
this description were the May Games, the Harvest Sup-
per, the Feast of Sheep Shearing, Midsummer-Eve re-
joicings, and the celebration of the New Year: all these
may be traced to the earliest times ; indeed they are co-
eval with society, and the Feast of the Tabernacle among
the Jews, and the ancient honours paid to Ceres, Bacchus,
and Saturn by the heathens, were only analagous obser-
vances, under a different appellation.
A revival of some of the old Sports and Pastimes would,
probably, be an improvement in national manners; and
the modren attractions of Rouge el Noir, French hazard,
Roulette, “ blue ruin,” and muddy porter, be beneficially
exchanged for the more healthly recreations of former
ages, “ Worse practices within doors," as Slowe remarks,
" it is to be feared, have succceded the more open pas-
times of the older time.”
The recreations of our Saxon ancestors were such as
were common among the ancient Northern nations ; con-
sisting mostly of robust exercises, as hunting, hawking,
leaping, ruuning, wrestling and casting of darts. They
were also much addicted to gaming; a propensity unfortu-
nately transmitted, unimpaired, to their descendants of
the present day. Chess was a favourite game with then,
and likewise backgammon, said to have been invented
about the tenth century. The Normans introduced the


164 PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS.
chivalrous game of tournaments and justs. These last
became very prevalent, as we learn from a artirical poem
of the thirteenth century, a verse from which has been
thus rendered by Strutt in his “ Sports and Pastimes :")
• If wealth, Sir Knight, perchance be thine,
In tournaments you're bound to shine ;
Refuse--and all the world will swear,
You are not worth a rotten pear.'
When the military enthusiasm which characterised the
middle ages had subsided, and chivalry was on the decline,
a prodigious change took place in the manners of the peo-
plę. Violent exercises grew out of fashion with persons
of rank, and the example of the nobility was followed by
other classes. Henry VII. Henry VIII. and James I, en-
deavoured to revive the ancient military exercises, but
with only ephemeral success.
We learn from Burton, in his “ Anatomy of Melancho-
ly," what were the most prevalent sports at the end of the
sixteenth century.* Hunting, hawking, running at rings,
tilts and tournaments, horse-races and wild-goose chaces,
were the pastimes of the gentry; while the lower classes
recreated themselves at May Games, Wakes, Whitson,
Ales ; by ringing of bells, bowling, shooting, wrestling,
leaping, pitching the bar, playing with keel pins, coits,
tronks, wasters, foils, foot-ball, balown, and running at
the quintain. Speaking of the Londoners, Burton says,
" They take pleasure to see some payeant or sight go by,
as at a coronation, wedding, and such like solemn viceties,
to see an ambassador or prince received and entertained
with masks, shows, and fireworks." The following he
considers cominon amusements, both in town and country
.
*In bis dry way, Old Burton says, “ Cards, dice, hawkes,
and hounds, are rocks upon which men lose themselves when
they are improperly handled and beyond their fortunes.”
Hunting and hawking, he allows, are“ honest recreations,
and fit for some great men, but no
t not for everv base and inferior
pereon, who, while they maintain their faulkoner, and dogs,
and hunting nags, their wealth runs away with their hounds,
and their fortunes fly away with their hawkes."


166 PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS.
palm-play, because the exercise consisted in receiving the
ball, and driving it back again with the palm of the hand.
Formerly they played with the naked hand, then with a
glove, which in some instanoes was lined ; afterwards they
bound cords and tendons round the hands to make the ball
rebound more forcibly: hence the rack derived its origin.
in the reign of Charles I. palm-play was very fashionable
in France, being played by the nobility for large sums of
money: when they had lost all they had about them, they
would sometimes pledge a part of their dress, rather than
give up the game. In England it was a favourite pastime
among the youth of both sexes, and in many parts of the
kingdom, they played during the Easter holidays, for tan-
sy cakes. It is still played, though under a different name
and probably under a different modification of the game
it is now called Fives.
STOOL-BALL is frequeutly mentioned by the writers of
the last century, but without any description of the game.
Dr. Johnson describes it as a play, where balls are driven
from stool to stool, but does not say in what manner, or to
what purpose. It seems to have been a game more appro-
priated to the women than to the men, but occasionly
played by both sexes, as appears from the following song,
written by D'Urfey to the play of Don Quixote ;
“Down in a vale, on a summer's day,
All the lads and lasses met to be merrv:
A match for kisses at stool-ball to play,
And for cakes, and ale, and cider, and perry..
Chorus. Come all, great, small, short, tall, away to stool-ball."
Foot-BALL was formerly much in vouge among the
common people, though of late years it has fallen into dis-
repute, andis little practised. Many games with the ball
require the assistance of a club or bat, and probably the
most ancient is that well-known game in the North, under
the name of GoFF. It requires much room to play this
game properly, therefore it is rarely seen in the vicinity of
the metropolis. PALL-MALL had some resemblance to
Goff. The game consisted in striking a round box ball
with a mallot, through two high arches of iron, one at each
end of the alley ; which he that could do at the fewest,
blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins. It was a fash-
sonable amusement in the reign of Charles II, and a well-


PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS. 167
known street, then a walk in St. Jame's Park, derived its
name from Charles and his courtiers there playing at mall:
the denomination mall, being evidently derived from the
mallet or wooden hammer used by the players.
The noble game of CRICKET has superseded most of
the ancient ball-games, and this is now so frequent a pas-
time among all ranks, that it does not require illustration.
RUNNING AT THE QUINTAIN is a game of great anti-
quity. The quintain at first was nothing more than the
trunk of a tree or post, set up for the purpose of tyros in
chivalry. In process of time, the diversion was improved,
and the resemblance of a human figure, carved in wood,
was introduced. To render the appearance of this figure
more formidable, it was generally made in the likeness of
a Turk or Saracen, armed at all points, bearing a shield
upon his left arm, and a sword in his right. The quintain
thus fashioned was placed upon a pivot, and so constructed
as to move round with great facility. In running at the
figure, it was necessary for the horseman to direct his lance
with great adroitness, and to make his stroke upon the fore-
head between the eyes, or upon the nose'; for if he struck
wide of these parts, especially upon the shield, the quin-
tain turned about with velocity, and if he was not exeed-
ingly careful would give him a severe blow on the back
with the wooden sabre held in the right hand, which was
considered highly disgraceful to the performer, while it
excited the laughter of the spectators.
The exercise of the quintain was practised in London
in summer, and in winter, but especially about
Christmas. · Stowe relates, he had seen the quintain set
on Cornhill, where " the attendants of the lords of merry
disports have ran, and made great pastime." Tilting or
running at the ring, was evidently a sport derived from
the quintain.
Hock-Day was once a popular holiday, mentioned by
Matthew Paris and other ancient writers. It was usually
kept about Easter, and distinguished by various sportive
pastimes, in which the men and women, divided into par-
ties, were accustomed to bind and draw each other with
ropes. Hock-Day was generally observed, 30 late as the
sixteenth century,


168
PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS.
SAEER-SHEARING and the HARVEST-HOME were both
celebrated in ancient times, with feasting and rustic sports :
at the latter the masters and servants used to sit down at
the same table, to'a plentiful regale, and spend the night in
dancing and singing, without distinction. At the present
day, excepting a dinner, or more frequently a supper, at
conclusion of sheep-sheariny and harvest, we have little
remains of these great rural festivals.
The advent of the New-Year is still marked by the ob-
servance of some old customs; the old year being consider-
ed well ended by copious libations, and the new by send-
ing presents, termed New-Year-gifts, to friends and ac-
quaintance. Young women formerly went about with
the famous Wassail bowl; that is a bowl of spiced ale, on
New-year's eve, with some verses which were sung by
them in going from door to door.
• FAIRs were formerlya greater kind of market, to which
people resorted periodically, for the purchase of all kinds
of necessaries for the ensuing year. One of the chief of
them, was that of St. Giles's Hill, near Winchester: it
was at first for three days, but afterwards by Henry III.
prolonged to sixteen days. Its jurisdiction extended seven
miles round; comprehending even Southampton, then a
capital trading town. A toll was levied on all merchan-
dize brought to the fair, the produce of which had been
given by the Conqueror to the bishop of Rochester.
Fairs were often the anniversary of the dedication of a
church, when tradesnien used to sell their wares in the
churchyard; as at Westminster, on St. Peter's day; at
London, on St. Bartholomew's; at Durham, on St. Cuth-
bert's day. They have long been on the decline in public
estimation. Southwark fair, May fair, and St. James' fair,
in the city of Westminster, were suppressed at the begining
of the last century; and if the present hostility of the ma-
gistrates continues to these annual assemblages, few will
shortly remain in the villages and hamlets round the me-
tropolis.
MAY-GAMES are of great antiquity, and were formerly
generally celebrated, especsally in the metropolis. Stowe
says, on May-day, in the morning, the citizens used to walk
“into the sweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice
their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers;"
and he gives an account of Henry the Eighth's riding a


170
PASTIMES AND HOLIDAYS.
cus exhibited feats of equestrianship. Music began to
form a principal ingredient in popular amusements, and
Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Sadler's Wells, and the Marybonne
Gardens, were the chief marts for recreation. These, with
the great attraction and variety of dramatic entertainments
and a more sedulous devotion to cards, dice, and billiarde,
have continued, to the present day, the prevalent amuse-
ments.


..
171
CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
Many of our ancient customs and ceremonies may be
traced to the remotest period and the most distant pa.
tions; and few but have had their origin prior to the
time of the Reformation. I shall briefly describe a few
of the most remarkable, premising that the facts are
chiefly collected from the curious and interesting work
of the late Mr. Brand, on “ Popular Antiquities.”
On MIDSUMMER-EVE, fires were lighted, round
which the old and young amused themselves in various
rustic pastimes. In London, in addition to the bonfires,
every man's door was shaded with green birch, long fen-
nel, St. John's wort, and white lilies; ornamented with
garlands of flowers. The citizens had, alsó, lamps of
glass, with oil buring in them all night ; and some of
them hung out branches of iron, curiously wrought, con.
taining hundreds of lamps lighted at once, which made a
very splendid appearance. On these occasions, Stowe
says, New Fish-street and Thames-street were peculiarly
brilliant.
It is a ceremony, says Browne, never omitted among
the vulgar, to draw lots which they term Valentines on
the eve before Valentine day. The names of a se-
lect number of one, with an equal number of the other
sex, are put into some vessel; and after that, every one
draws a name, which for the present is called their Val-
entine, and is looked upon as a good omen of their beingi
man and wife afterwards. Brand says, the custom o
choosing Valentines was a sport practised in the house
of the gentry of England, so early as the year 1746.
In the North of England, the Monday preceding
Shrovę Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, is called COLLOP
MONDAY; eggs and collops forming a principal dish at
dinger on that day, as pancakes do on the following,
from which custom they derive their names. It would seem


172 CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
that on Collop Monday they took their leave of flesh in
the papal times, which was formerly prepared to last du-
ring the winter, by salting, drying, and being hung up.-
Slices of this kind of meat are, to this day, called collops
in the North ; whence they are called steaks when cat
off fresh, or unsalted flesh.
HALLOW Eve, called in the North, Nut-crack Night,
is the vigil of All Saints' Day, which is on the first of
November; when it is the custom, in the North of Eng-
land to dive for apples, or catch at them, suspended
from a string, with their mouths only, their hands being
tied behind their backs. In Scotland, the young women
determine the figure and size of their husbands, on Hal-
low Even, by drawing cabhages, blindfold; and, like the
English, fling nuts into the fire. Burning the nuts answers
also the purposes of divination. They name the lad and
lass to each particular nut as they put them into the
fire; and accordingly as they burn quietly together, or
start from beside each other, the course and issue of the
courtship will be. In Ireland the young women put
three nuts upon the bar of the grates, naming the nuts
after the lovers. If a nut cracks, or jumps, the lover
will prove' unfaithful; if it begins to blaze or burn, he
has a regard for the person making the trial. If the
nuts mentioned after the girl and her sweetheart, burn
together, they will be married. A similar mode of divi.
nation, by means of a peascod, is described by Gay.
" As peascods once I pluck'd, I chanced to see
One that was closely fill'd with three-times three:
Which when I crepp'd, I safely home convey'd.
And o’er the door the spell in secret laid;
The latch moved up, when who should first come in,
But, in his proper person.-Lubberkin!”
The election of a Boy Bishop on St. Nicholas' Day,
is one of the most singular customs of former times. In
cathedrals, the Boy Bishop was elected from among the
children of the choir. After his election, being complete-
ly apparelled in the episcopal vestments, with a mitre and
crozier, he bore the title and state of a bishop, and ex-
acted ceremonial obedience from his fellows, who were
habited like priests. What is most strange he took pos-
session of the church, and, except mass, performed all the


CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES. 173
ceremonies and offices. At Salisbury, the Boy Bishop
had the power of disposing of such prebends as happen-
ed to be vacant in the days of his episcopacy; and if he
died in his high office, the funeral honours of a bishop,
with a monument were granted to him. His office and au-
thority lasted from the 6th to the 28th of December.
This ceremony is said to have been in honour of St.
Nicholas, the patron of scholars. Such a show, at the
present day, would have been deemed somewhat of a
burlesque, or even blasphemous parody on the Christian
religion. The show of the Boy Bishop was abolished
by a proclamation in 1542. more from its absurdity than
impiety.
The Montem, AT Eron, bears some resemblance to
the preceding pageant; modified, in conformity with the
altered feeling of the times, from a religious to a military
spectacle. The Montem takes place on Tuesday, in
Whitsun week, when the Eton scholars go in military
procession, with drums and trumpets, to Salt-hill. The
scholars of the superior classes dress in the uniform of
captain, lieutenant, or other regimental officer; which
they obtain from London. The procession begins with
marching three times round the school-yard; from thence
to Salt-hill, where one of the scholars, dressed in black,
with a band, as a chaplain, reads certain prayers : after
which, a dinner, dressed in the college kitchen, is provi-
ded by the captain, for his guests at the inn there; the
rest getting a dinner for themselves at the other houses
of entertainment. The price of the dinner in Huggett's
time was 10s. 6d. and 2s. 60. more for salt-money. The
dinner being over, they march back, in the order they
'came, into the school-yard, round which they march
three times, when the ceremony is concluded.
The motto on the colours is, Pro More et Monte. Ev.
ery scholar, who is no officer, marches with a long pole,
two and two. Before the procession begins, two of the
scholars, called salt-bearers, dressed in white, with a
handkerchief of salt in their hands, and attended each
with some sturdy young fellow, hired for the occasion, go
round the college, and through the town, and from
thence up into the high road, offering salt to all, but scarce-
ly leaving it to their choice, whether they will give or


174
CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
not; for money they will have, if possible, and that even
from servants. The contributions thus levied are very
considerable; in 1793 they amounted to 10001., but that
was an unusual sum, the average being about 5001.-
The salt-money paid by the king on this occasion is 100
guineas. The custom of offering salt is differently ex-
plained : it is supposed to be an emblem of learning; and
the scholars, in presenting it to passengers, and asking
money, engage to become proficient therein.
ROYAL OAK Day, as every one knows, commemo-
rates the escape of Charles the Second from his pursu-
ers, after the battle of Worcester.. Brand relates that he
remembered a taunting rhyme, which the boys at New
Castle-upon-Tyne used to insult such persons as they
met on that day, who had not oak leaves in their hats :
“Royal oak,
The Whigs to proroke."
To this was a retort courteous by others, who con-
temptuously wore plane-tree leaves, of the same homely
diction;
“Plane-tree leaves :
The Churcb-folk are thieves."
The royal oak, at a short distance from Boscobel-
house, was standing in Dr. Stukeley's time (1724,) en-
closed with a brick wall, bat almost cut away in the
middle by travellers, whose curiosity led them to see it.
Charles, after the Restoration, visiting the place, carried
away some of the acorns and set them in St. James's
Park, and used to water them himself.
The PassinG BELL was anciently rung for two pur.
poses : one to bespeak the prayers of all good Christians
for a soul just departing ; the other to fright away the
evil spirits who stood at the bed's-foot, and about the
house, ready to seize their prey: or, at least, to molest
and terrify the soul in its passage: but by the ringing of
that bell they were kept aloof; and the soul, like a hunt-
ed hare, gained the start, or had what by sportsmen is
called law. Hence, perhaps, exclusive of the additional
labour, was occasioned the high price demanded for tol-
ling the greater bell of the church; for that being loud.
er, the evil spirits must go farther off; it would likewise
procure the deceased a great number of prayers,


CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES. 175
MOTHERING SUNDAY, or Mid-Lent Sunday, is the
day on which the people used to visit their mother
church, and make their offerings at the high altar. The
only remains of this custom is the practice of going to
visit parents on Mid-Lent Sunday.
* APRIL with tools, and May with bastards blest.”
CHURCHILL.
A custom says The Spectator, prevails every where
amongst us on the first of April, when every body strives
to make as many fools as he can. The wit consists chiefly
in sending persons on what are called sleeveless errands,
for the History of Eve's Mother, for Pigeon's milk, with
similar ridiculous absurdities. The French call the per-
son imposed upon, a Poisson d' Avril, “an April fish,"
who we term an April fool. In the North of England,
person thus imposed upon are called. “ April Gowks :"
Gowk being the word for a cuckoo; metaphorically, a
fool. In Scotland, they send silly people from place to
place, by means of letter, in which is written :
“On the first day of April,
Hunt the Gowk another mile!"
Similar fooleries prevail in Portugal, as we learn from Mr.
Southey. “On the Sunday and Monday," says he, "pre-
ceding Lent, as on the first of April, in England, people
are privileged here (Lisbon) to play the fool. It is
thought very jocose to pour water on any person who
passes, or throw water on his face; but to do both is the
perfection of wit.”
Mr. Brand has not ascertained the origin of All-Fool's
day. It has been stated it arose from the custom of let-
ting all the insane persons be at large on the first of April,
when the boys amused themselves by sending them on ri-
diculous errands.
MAUNDAI THURSDAY is the Thursday before Easter,
and is the Thursday of the poor, from the French mendier,
“ to beg.” It was formerly the custom of the Kings of
England to wash the feet of poor men, in number equal to
the years of their reign, in imitation of the humility of
our Saviour; and give them shoes, stockings, and money.
James the Second was the last king who performed this in
person. The custom of giving alms is still continued.


CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES. . 177
· Some ascribe the eating of goose at Michaelmas, to the
circumstance, that on that day Queen Elizabeth received
the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, while she
was eating a goose; and to commemorate the event, she
ever afterwards dined on that day on a goose. But, as
Brand observes, this is a strong proof that the custom pre-
vailed at court even in Queen Elizabeth's time. In Den-,
mark, where the harvest is later, every family has a roast-
ed goose for supper on St Martin's eve.
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS.
ENGLAND was always famous among foreigners for the
celebration of Christmas, at which season they admitted
sports and pastimes, not known in other countries.
" At the feast of Christmas," says Stowe, “inthe King's
court, wherever he chanced to reside, there was appointed
LORD OF MISRULE, or master of merry diports: the
same merry fellow made his appearance at the house of
every nobleman and person of distinction; and, among the
rest, the lord mayor of London and the sheriffs, had their
lords of misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or of-
fence, who should make the rarest pastime to delight the
beholders.” The society of Lincoln's Inn had an officer
chosen at this season, who was honoured with title of King
of Christmas Day, because he presided in the hall on that
day, with his marshal and steward to attend him. The
marshal, in the absence of the monarch, was permitted to
assume his state; and upon New Year's day he sat as king
in the hall, when the master of the revels, during the time
of dining, supplied the marshal's place.
The custom of going a-begging called HAGMENA, a
few nights before Christmas, singing Christmas carols and
wishing a happy New Year, is still followed in the North
of England. They get in return, apples, nuts, refresh-
ments, and money. Mumming is another Chrismas drol-
lery, which consists in men and women changing clothes ;
and, so disguised, going from one neighbour's house to
another, partaking of Christmas cheer.


178
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS,
On the night of Christmas Eve, it was formerly thë.
practice to light up candles of an uncommon size, called
Christmas candles, and lay a log of wood on the fire called
a Yule Clog, to illuminate the house, and turn, as it were,
day into night. In the Latin, or westero church; Christ-
mas was called the Feast of Lights.
The forms of the TWELFTH Day vary in different coun-
tries, yet all agree in the same end, to do honour to the
Eastern Magi, who are supposed to have been of royal
dignity. It is in the south of England where the customs
of this day are most prevalent. They are thus described
by Brand. After tea, a cake is produced, and two bowls,
containing the fortunate chances for the different sexes.
The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company except
the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, and maids
of honour or ladies of the bedchamber. Often the host and
hostess, more by design than accident, become king and
queen. The twelfth-cake was made formerly of plums,
with a bean and pea ;- who found the former, was king;
who got the latter, was queen. The choosing of a king and
queen, by a bean in a piece of divided cake, was formerly
a cominon Christmas gambol in both the universities.
CHRISTMAS BOXES are derived from a custom of the
ancients, of giving New Year's Gifts. In papal times, the
priests had their Christmas box, in which were kept the
sum they levied on the people for prayers, and granting ab-
solution for sips.
Decking houses and churches with ever-greens is ano-
ther custom of pagan origin. The ancient Druids decked
their houses with holly and ivy in December, that the syl-
van spirits might repair to them, and remain unnipped by
frost and cold winds till a miller season had renewed the
foliage of their favourite abodes.
But for a more particular account of Christmas customs
and festivities we must refer the reader to Mr. Brand's *
large work, or to Washington Irving. I shall conclude
with a good old Christmas carol from Poor Robin's Almas
nack, for 1695, and preserved in Brand's POPULAR ANTI-
QUITIES.


179
A CHRISTMAS SONG,
Now thrice welcome, Christmas,
Which brings us good cheer;
Minc'd pies and plum-pudding,
Good ale, and strong beer;
With pig, goose, and capon,
The best that may be :
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree.
Observe how the chimneys
Do smoak all about;
The cooks are providing
For dinner, no doubt;
But those on whose tables
No victuals appear,
O may they keep Lent
All the rest of the yea
With holly and ivy,
So green and so gay,
We deck up our houses,
As fresh as the day;
With bays and rosemary,
And laurel complete ;
And every one now
Is a king in conceit.
But as for curmudgeons
Who will not be free,
I wish they may die
On a three-legged tree





POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
it would occupy a large volume merely to enumerate
the superstitious practices still prevalent in different parts
of the country, many of which are observed in the me-
tropolis ; and even well-educated persons will call to
mind with what avidity in childhood they listened to
nursery tales of giants, duarfs, ghosts, fairies, and witches.
The effect of these juvenile impressioni are not easily
got the better of, and ihe impressions themselves rarely,
if ever, forgotten
To doubi, in formertimes, the power of charms, and the
veracity of omens ard ghost stories, was deemed littie
less than atheism; and the terror caused by them, fre-
quently embittered the lives of persons of all ages ; by
almost shutting them out of their own houses, aud deier-
ring them from going abroad after dark. The room in
which the head of a family died was for a long time un-
tenanied ; particularly if they died without a will, or
were supposed to have entertained any particular reli-
gious opinion If any disconsolate old maiden or love-
crossed bachelor happened to despaich themselves in
their garters, the room where the fatal deed was perpe-
trated was rendered for ever uninh bitable, and notu nire-
quently nailed up. If a drunken farmer, says Gruse, re-
turning from market, fell from Old Dobbin and broke his
neck-or a carter, in the same predicament, tumbled
from his cart or waggon, and was killed by it-that spot
ever after was haupied and impassable: in short, there
was scarcely a bye-lane or cross:way, but had its ghost,
who appeared in the shape of a headless cow or horse ;
or, clothed all in white, glared, with balefun eye, over
some lunely gate or stile Ghosis of higher degree rode
in coaches, drawn by sis headless horses, iind driven by
a headless coachman and po-tillion Almost every ma-
nor-house was haunted by some of its former masiers and
mistresses, where, besides oiher noises, that of telling
money was distinctly heard: and as forthe church-yards,
the number of ghosts that swarmed there, according to
the village computation, equalled the living parishioners,
16


182
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
and to pass through them was a far more perilous enter-
prise than the storming of Badajos!
Terrible and inconvenient as these superstitions might
be they were harmless compared with the dreadful conse-
quences resulting from a belief in WITCHCRAFT--which
even made its way into our touris of justice; and it is
with horror we read of hundreds of innocent persons en-
titled, by age and intirmities, to protection and indul-
gence, immolated, with all the forins of lan, at the shrine
of universal Ignorance ! Artful prients, to advance the
interests of their religion, or rather their own emolu-
ment, pretended to have power to cast out devils from
demoniacs and persons bewitched, and for this purpose
suborned wortbisss people 10 act the part of persons pos-
sessed ; and to suffer the evil spiris to be cast out by
prayers and sprinkling with holy water. To performa
their parts they coun erfeited violent fits and coniulsions,
on signs given them; and, in compliance with the popu.
lar notions, vomited op crooked nails, pins, needles, coals,
and other rubbish, privately conveyed to them. Foriu-
nately, these combinations were at length discovered and
exposed; but it is an astonishing fact, ibat im New Eng.
land there were, at one time, upwards of three hundred
persons all imprisoned for witchcraft.
Confuted and ridiculed as these opirvons have lately
been, the seeds of thein are still widely diffused, and at
different times have altempted to spring up, as in the
Cock-lane Ghost, the noises at Stockwell, and the Samp-
ford Ghost. So recently as in the last reign, in the centre
of England, at Glen in Leiecestershire, iwo old women
were actually thrown into the river by the polulace, to
ascertain, by their sinking or swimming, whether they
were witches! Have we riot even at the present day the
pretended miracles of Prince Hohenloe, and do we not
daily read of the horrid cruelties perpetrated in Ireland,
under the prétence of casting out evil spirits? How. in.
deed, can we doubt the wide diffusion of popular super-
stitions, when it is notorious, that men of first-rate ed-
ucation and intellect have been believers therein! Dr.
Johnson was a scrupulous observer of signs, omens, and
particular days; Addison was a half-believer, at least, in
ghosts; John Wesley saw or heard several apparitions ;
and at this very time we have the POET LAUREATE and


POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS
185
full or empty--a solid oak--the pummel of a saddle-a
bodkina barrel of beer, if yeoman or simple gentle.
man-or a pipe of winę, if an esquire, justice, or mem-
ber of parliament. But of all places, the most common,
and what a Ghost least likes, is the Red Sea; it has been
related, in many instances, that Ghosts have most earn-
estly besought the exorcists not to confine them in that
abominable place.
In cases of murder, a Ghost, instead of going to Sir
Richard Birnie or some other ustice, or to the nearest re-
lation of the person murdered, a pears to some poor la-
bourer, who knows none of the parties, draw the tumains
of some old nurse, or alu: 5-1 omen, or merely hovers
round the place where the body is deposited. Another
feature in their conduct is their fondness for low company
and melancholy places; they rarely visii persons of iash-
ion and education, or scenes of life and gaiety--their fa-
vourite associates are children, old women, and rustics
and old manor houses, ruined castles, church yards, and
obscure villages, their places of resort. It would be
presumptuous to scrutinize the motives of such higli per-
sonages. they have, dombtless, forms and customis pe.
culiar to themselves.
WITCHES.
A witch is universally a poor, infirm, superannuated
old woman; who, being in great distress, is tempted by
a man clothed in a black coat or gown; sometimes, also,
as in Scotland, wearing a bluish band and hand coff'sma
kind of turn up linen sleeve: the sable gentleman pro-
mises, if she will sign a contract to become bis, both
soul and body, she shall want for nothing, and ibat he
will revenge her upon all her enemies The agreement
being concluded, he gives her some irifling sum of money,
from half a crown down to four-pence, to bind the bar.
gain ; then cutting or pricking her finger, causes her to
sign her name, or make a cross as her mark, with her
blood, on a piece of parchment: what is the form of
these contracts is no where mentioned In addition to
this signature, in Scotland, the Devil made the witches
put one hand to the sole of their foot, and the other
to the crown of their bead, signifying they were entirely
his. In making these bargains, there is sometimes a great
16*


186
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
deal of haggling, as is instanced in the negociation ben
tween OLIVER (FROMWFLL and the Devil, hefire the bat-
tle of Worcester, related in Echard's History of England.
Before the Devil quits his new recruit, he delivers to her
an imp or familiar, and sometimes iwo or three; they are
of different shapes and forms, some resembling a cat,
others a mole, a miller fiy, or some other insect or ani.
mal : these are to come at her call, to do such mischief
as she shall command, and, at stated times of the day,
suck her blood, throuh teats, on different parts of ber
body. Feedins, surkling, or rewarding ihese imps was,
by law, declared FELONY.
Sometimes a Witch, in company with others of the
sisterhood, is carried thrugh the air on brooms or spits
to distant meetinys or sabbaths of Witches; but for this
they must anoint themselves wiih a certain magial oint-
ment given them by the Devil At these meetings they
have feasting, music and dancing; the Deviihimselfsome.
times condescending to play on the grea: fiddle, or on the
pipe or ciltern. When the meeting breaks up, they all
have the honour of kissing Satan's posteriors, who, for
that ceremony, usually assumes ine form of a be-goat;
though in Scoiland it was performed when he appeared
in the buman shape, with a blrish band and ruff.
Witches show their spire by carising the object of it to
waste a way in a long and paintul disease, with a sensa-
tion of thorns stuck in the flesh: fhen a less fatal re-
venge will satisfy them, they make their victims swallow
pins, old nails, diri, and irash of all sorts, invisibly con-
veyed to them by their imps Frequently they show
their hate by drying cows and killing oxen: for slight of-
fences they prevent butter from coming in the churn, or
beer from working To ves the squire, the parzon, or
justice, they transform them-elves into the shape of a
hare, and lead the hounds and huntsmen a long and fruit-
less chase.
There are various tests for discovering a Witch. One, by
weighing her against the church bible, i hich, if she is
guilty, will preponderate : another, hv making her say
the Lord's Praver, which no Witch is able to do correct.
ly A Witch cannot weep more than three tears, weld
that only out of the left eye : this want of tears was con-
sidered, even by some learned judges, as a decisive proof


iss
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
and entices them by fumigations : for the devils are ob-
served to have delicate nostrils, abominating and flying
some kind of stinks; witness the fight of the evil spirit
into the remote parts of Egypt, driven by the smell of a
fisb's liver, burned by Tobit. They are also found to be
peculiarly fond of certain perfumes ; insomuch that Lilly
informs us, that ope Evans having roused a spirt, at the
request of Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby, and
forgeuing a suffumig: tion, the spirit, vexed at the neglect,
snatched him from his circle, and carried him from out
his house in the Minories, into a field near Ballersta!
Sorcerers do not always employ their art to do mise
chief; but, on the routrary, frequently exert it to cure
diseases inflicted by uitches; to discover thieves ;; re.
cover stolen goods : to foreteli fuinre evenis, and the
state of absent friends They raise spirits, and perform
other secrets of their callins, by means of the circle, a
beryl, a virgin,or a man undefiled with women :-See the
“ Dæmonologia" of James 1.
FAIRIES
Are a sori of interaieejinle beings between men and
spiriis, having bodies, willi ibe power of rendering them
invisible, and of a sing through all sorts of enclosures.
They are remarkably small or staiute, with fair complex.
ions, whence they obained their name Both male and
female are generally clothed in green ; and frequent
groves, mountains, the sunny side of hills, and green
meadows, where they amuse ibemselves with dancing,
haric in hand, in a ciri-le, and by moonlight lhe traces
of their feet are risible next morning on the grass, and
are commonly called Fair Rings or Circles.
Fairies have all top passions and wants of men, but are
great lovers of cleanliness and propriety ; for the ob-
servance of which, ihes frequently reuard servants, by
dropping money in their shoes: They vikewise severely
punish slots and slovens by pinching them.black and blue,
They oft change their weakly and starveling elves or
children, for the more robust off pring of men. But ibis
can only be done before baj,rism, tor which reason, it is
still the custom in the Highlands to watch by the cradle
of infants till they are christened The term Changeling,
now applied to one almost an idiol, attests the current be.
lief of these mutations.


POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
189
Some Fairies dwell in mines, and in Wales nothing is
more common than these subterraneous spirits, called
knockers, who gnod-naturedly point out wbere there is a
rich vein of lead or silver.
In Scotland there were a sort of domestic Fairies, from
their sun-burnt complexions called Brow-ies : these were
extremely useful, performing all sorts oi dumestic drudge.
ry:
SECOLD SIGHT
So called, from being a supplemental faculty added to
that of common vision whereby certain appearances,
predictive of future events, present themselves guddenly
before persons so gifted, without any desire on their part
to see them. Some make this faculty hereditary in cer.
tain persons It is a mperstition confined to the Highlands
of Scotland, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, and some
parts of Ireland.
OMENS, CHARMS, AND DIVINATION,
A SCREECH-Owl, Aapping its wings against the windows
of a seck person's chamber, or screeching at him, por.
tends death.
A coal, in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire to
any particular person, denoirs his death is not far off A
collection of lallow rising up against the wick of a can-
dle, is styled a Winding-sheet, and deemed an omen of
mortality.
Any person fasting on Midsummer Eve, and sitting in
the church porch, will, ai midnight, see the spirits of the
persons of ihe parish who will die that year, come and
knock at the church door in the order and succession in
which they will die.
Any unmarried woman fasting on Midsummer Eve, and
at midnight laying a clean cloth, with bread, cheese, and
ale, and sitting down, as it going to eat the street door
being left opeu-the person whom she is afterwards to
marry, will come into the room and drink to ber hy bow-
ing, afterwards fill the glass, make awother bow, and re-
tire.
The same important fact may be ascertained another
way : At the firs! appearance of the New Moon, next
after New Year's Day--though some say any other New


190
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
Moon is as good-go out in the evening, and stand over
the spars of a gate or stile, and, looking on the moon, re-
peat ihe following lines :
* All hail to the Moou! all bail to thee!
I pr’yihee, good 'oon, reveal to me,
This nighi, who my husband must be."
Then go directly to bed, and you will dream of your fu-
turp husband
A slice of the bride cake, thrice drawn through the
wedding ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried
man or woman, will make the dream of their future
wife or busbaid
To discover a thief, take a sieve and shears ; stick the
points of the shears in the wood of the sieve, and let two
persons support it, balanced upright witb their two fin.
gers: then read a “bapter in ihe Bible, and afterwards
ask 5Peter and St. Paul if a certain person, naming all
you !speci, is the thief On naming the real thief, the
sieve will turn suddenly round --NB Tbis receipt may
be very useful at Bow.street, or the Old Bailey
A ring made of the hinge of a cothin is good for the
cramp. A haller, with which a man has been hanged,
if iied about the head, will rure the head ache.
Touching a dead body prevents dreaming of it.
stone, with a hole in it, bing at the bed's head, or
two stones inside the hed, will prevent the night mare :
the frer also premis Witches riding horses, for which
purpose it is often lied to the stable key
If a tree, of any kind, is split-and weak, ricketty, or
ruptured children drawn through it, and afterwards the
tree is bound together, so as to make it unite-as the tree
heals and grows togel her, so will the child acquire strength.
This is a very ancient and wide-spread piece of super-
stition. Creeping through tolmen or perforated stones,
was a Druidical ceremony, and at this day is practised in
the East Indies. Mr. Borlace mentions a stone, in the
parish of Morden, having a hole in it, fourteen inches
diameter, through which many persons have crept for
pains in their backs and limbs : and many children have
been drawn for the rickets. In some parts of the Nortb,
children are drawn through a hole cut in the groaning
shoese, on the day they are christened.


VULGAR ERRORS.
Populxr superstitions may be ranked among Vulgar
Errors, and might have been included under ibat head;
but, for greater distinction, I shall class those mistaken
notions which either do now, or did formerly, circulate
among the common people, under a separate article.
The wonderful discoveries of science in the last centu-
ry have greatly auginented the list of Vulgar Errors, by
proving many facts, which even the learned of a former
age believed true, entirely unfounded in the Works of
Sir HMAS BROWNE, publi-bed in 16 6, there is an in-
quiry mito Commun and Vulgar Errors, in which the wri.
ter disnlays great learning and ingenuity; yet, so partial
is the enlightenment of the author, that lie entertains the
popular notion thal lights burn blue in the presence of
apparitions, and gravely attempts to explain the fact on phi-
losop!ical principles ! What a host of learned errors have
been put to flight, almost in the memory of the present
age, in the tuc sciences of cher...stry and political econo.
m!! It was formerly believed thai crystals were only ice
or snow strorgly congealed; that the flesh of the pea.
cock neier putrefied; that miter was an elemeniary
fluid, and rose in the coinmon pump from the horror
Nature had of a vachium The truihs of political econo:
my are still too much contested for us to be able to deter-
mine the facts we ought to include among the errors of
that science ! but I think we may reckon as such all
that relate to the bounties and prohibitions of the com.
mercial system, the influence of rent, rithe, and wages
on the prices of commodities: and the effect of laxation
on public happiness. In polities, ivo, one mighi enume.
rate a long list of errors which were formerly current, but
which are noi struggling for existence-such as, thai the
poor rate originated in the 4313 of Elizabeth ; that the
land tax and finding system commenced at the Revolu.
tion in 1608; ibat Mr. Pirt was the author of the sinking
fund that the miraculous powers of borrowed money
and compound interest would liquidate the national debt;
and the French Revolution was caused by the extrava.
gant writings of Rousseau, Helvetius, and a few other
theorists it is not, bowever, intended in this place to
give an account of the follies of the wise,' but of the
ignorant, so as to complete the picture of :he intelligence
and manners of an antecedent state of society.


ERRORS IN NATURAL HISTORY.
193
LEGAL ERRORS.
The Hon Daines BARRINGtor, in bis Observations on
the Statutes, observes, that there is a general vulgar erro
that it is not lawful to go about with a dark lantern; all
popular errors, he adds, have some foundation, and the
regulation in the reign of Edward, that no one should
appear in the streets without a light, was probably the oc-
casion of this
It is an error that a surgeon or butcher may be chal.
lenged asjurors, from the supposed cruelty of their business.
II is erroneously supposed to be penal to open a cual.
mine, or to kill a crow within five miles of London : this
last probably took its rise from a statute of Henry VII.
prohibiting the use of a cross-bew
It is an error that the body of a debtor may be taken in
execution after his death ; which, however, was practised
in Prussia befaire Frederic the second abolished it by the
Crude Frederique.
It is an error that the king signs the death-warrant, as
it is called, for the execution of a criminal; as also, that
there is a tatute which obliges the owners of asses to crop
their ears, lest the length of them shnuld frighten the
horses they mi et on the road.
It is a mistaken notion that a woman's marrying a man
under ihe gallows will save him from execution. This,
probably, aro-e from the wife fuaving brought an appeal
against the nuurderer of her husband; who, afterwards
repenting the prosecution of her lover, not only forgave
the offence, but was willing to marry the appeilee.
It is a common error that those born at sea belong to
Stepney parish. It is an error too, that when a man de-
sires to marry a woinan who is in debl, if he take her from
the hands of the minister, clothed only in her chemise,
that he will not be liable to her engagements
For a person to disinberit his son, it is not necessary he
should leave him a shilling in his will.
Lastly, it is an error that any one may be put into the
Crown Office for no cause whatevex, or the most trifling injury.
ERRORS IN NATURAL HISTORY.
The stories that there is but one phenix in the world, which
after many hundred years burns herself, and froin her ashes
rises another; that the velican pierces her breast with her
beak, to draw blood for her young; that the sameleon lives


ERRORS ON MAN.-HISTORICAL ERRORS. 197
ERRORS ON MAN, ,
It was formerly believed, (Browne's Works. folio, p. 66,)
that Jews stink naturally ; but this is a prejudice on a par
with Mr Cobbett's votion, that Veyroes do not smeil like other
mon. It is also an error, with respect to the latter that they
are not a part of the human race, which Fovargue calls a
“Creolian error ," and that they are the descendants of Cain,
bearing his mark.
It - Conmonly believed, that men flat on the ninth day,
after submersion in the water but the time 1. uncertain, and
is on the habit of body fat men unde yo a chemical
change i'uch sooner than luan men and consequently float
sooner (he analogy due not holi, that en naturally swim
like utner anals. the motion of animals in the waler is the
sanie as on land, but men do not swit) as they walk. it is
more correct that women, when vinowned, lav pro-trare in the
water, and bien siipine, it arises from the different contomna.
tion of the two sexes,
That a an has one rib less than a woman is a vuiga, error;
both men and women have twenty four ribs.
· It was an oppion forinerly, that it was conducive to a
man's nealth to be druuk once a month.
The age of 63 was called the great climacteric "and con-
sidered peculiarly dangerous because it was the product of
the two add oubers 7 and 4.
That a man weighs more fasting thay full: that he was an-
cienily larger in statue that love anri lust are the same
thing that he is better or worse for being of a parti ular
profession: have been classed by writers among vulgar
errors.
HISTORICAL ERRORS.
Sir Thomas Browne says it is an error, thai Tamerlane, the
Tartar was a shepherd he was of no "le birth. The popu-
la stirs that Bel-arius was b.in and beyed publicl; nihe
streets is witíout foundation he suffered much from thi envy
of the court but contemporary wr'ers do not mention his
megdicity nor blindness. The storm of cævola, of Curtius,
of the finazous aud of rchimedes burning the ships of liar.
cellus, are, doubtless histor cai lies, or moustious exagera-
tious.
It is related that Crassus, the grandfather of Marcus, the
wealthy' oman never laughell but ice, are that wasat an ass
eating thistles. That Jesus Christ never laug ert, because it is
only inentioned ce wept though. as Brown observes. Il is
hard to conceive how he passeri his childhood witicout nirth..
17*


198 MISCELLANEOUS ERRORS.
Many vulgar errors prevail respecting 'iypsies, and coun,
terfeit í oors. They are said to have come originally from
Egypt, and their present state to be a judgme tof God upon
them. for refusing to entertain the Virgin Mary and Jesus, on
their flight into Egypt. They existed in Egyp: long before
this occurrence where they were considered strangers. They
were ralled Bohemians in France, where they first appeared
from dermany, and spoke the Sclavonian language. They were
at one time counſelianced by the Turks: suffered to keep
stews in the suburbs of Constantinople, and employed by
them as spies among other nations, for which they were ba-
nished by the Emperor Charles the Filth.
MISCELLANEOUS ERRORS.
From the rising of the Dog star, the ancients computed their
capicular days: concerning which there is an opinion, that
during those days all physic should be declined, and the cure
committed to pature: this season is called the Physician's va-
cation.
It was formerly helieverl, that the tenth wave was more dan.
gerous, and the lepih egg larger than any other.
The ring was formerly worn on the fourth finger of the left
hand, from a supposition that a particular nerve in that part
conniunicated with the heart
Fovargue mcludes in his Catalogue of Vulgar Errors,"
the notion of Londoners, that they have wit enough to impose
on countrymen. “This error ” says he, • chiefs proceeds
from the outward' appearance of countrynien, when they
arrive at the metropolis. They are struck with the grandeur
of the place and on that account keep their heads up in the
air, as if they were contemplating sone phei onienor in the
heavens. Then, leir clothes 'being calculated for strength
and wear or spun thick, which gives them a stiff awkward
gait, and inis is not a little augmented by the robusi labour
they daily undergo. This awkwardness. juined to an absenice
which the conten platjou of any thing fine is sure to beget,
make high diversion for the Londoners, who are apt 1o put
tricks upon them, and tax them with want of apprehension."
-pp. 92-3
The saine author also reckons among Vulyar Errors, that
the italian pera consists of effeminate music. that noihing
is poetry but whai is in rhyme. that kicking up the heels be-
bimit, and iw sting round on one leg is fi: e skating that the
more ammun tior is put into a lowling piece', the ore execu-
tion it will do and that using hard words and long sentences
as a proof of scholarship. -


AVANT-PROPOS.
“ The Wisdom of the Ancients !"- amph! I fancy I see
JEREMY Bentham turn up his nose at this proemium. I con-
fess, i ann no great admirer of the ancients—their taciturnity,
their contempt of riches, the scurvy manner they treated the
wonen, their pride, and affected love of solitude-though the
last bas been extolled by the (aledonian phenomenon--are
not congenial to my taste. Int there is alwais danger in
passing from one extreme to another. It was the fashion of the
two last centuries to exalt the aurients to slie tkies --- we
imbibed the idolatry with Greek aud Latin at tton and the
Universities,- -but now, forsooth, they are to be placed on a
level with the Goths an. Vandals. This is too bad Mr.
BENTHAM will hardly reny.tha: tie few maxims here culled out
of their writings. contain at least many soud principles on
government, legislation, and bunan life--and even that the
Most oly and Reverend Farheis, 5t ugustine •t. Bernard,
St. Chrysostome, St. basil, and the rest, have turnished
hundreds of good precepts, by which a man may choose a
wife, eat, drink, and sleep, and yo through life venera ly as
well vow as two in onsabiri years ayo, allowing a little for the
change of manners and the seasons.


SELECT SAYINGS AND MAXIMS
OF THE
ANCIENTS AND FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
ANGER.
MILDNESS governs more than anger. -Publius Syrus.
No man is free who does not command himself.— Pythagoras.
He who cannot command himself, it is folly to think to coin-
mand others. - Laberius
He injures the absent who contends with an angry man --Pub.
lius Syrus.
An angry man is again angry with himself, when he returns
to reason. - Publius Syrus.
Women are sooner angry than men, the sick than the healthy,
aud oboi nep than young men – Hermes
He overcomes a stout eneiny, that overcomes his own anger.
Chilo.
He best keeps from anger, who remembers that God is always
looking upon him - Plato.
An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.- Cato.
The anger of a good man is the hardest to bear - Publius
Syrus.
ANCESTORS.
What can the virtues of our ancestors profit us, if we do not
imitate them?
Great merits ask great rewards, and great ancestors virtuous
issues
To be of noble pareniage, and not to be endowed with noble
qualities, is rather a defaination than a glory.


202
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND
MANNERS. -
Be not too brief in conversation, lest you be not understood ;
nor too diffuse, lest you be troublesome - Protagoras.
We must not chcradict, but instrucı him that contradicts
us; for a madman is uot cured by another running mad
also.--Antisthenes.
To a man full of questions make no answer at all. -- Plato.
Such as give ear to slanderers are worse than slanderers them-
selves. - Domitian.
He conquers twice, who conquers bimself in victory.—Publius
Syrus.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Solomon.
He is well constituted who grieves not for what he has not,
and rejoices for what he has - Democritus.
Impose not a burden on others, which thou cannot bear thy.
self -- Laberius.
A cheerful manner commonly denotes a gentle narure; where-
as, a sour countenance is a manifest sign of a frouard dis-
position. --- Anon
Consider pleasures as they depart, not as they come. - Aris-
tatie.
Such as are careless of themselves can hardly be mindful of
others. - Thales.
Sobriety without sullenness is commendable, and mirth with
modesly delectable.
Nothing is more hard to honest people, tha to be denied the
liberty of speaking their minds
What one knows, it is useful sometimes to forget.- Publius
Syrus.
There are more mockers than well-meaners, and more foolish
quips than good precepts.
In conversation, avoid the extremes of petulance and reserve.
--Cato.
Where the demand is a jest, the fittest answer is a scoff.-
Archimedes.
Aristotle says, when you can have any good thing, take it:
and Plato says, if you do not take it, you are a great cox-
comb.


* FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
203
· A merry heart doeth good like a medicine ; but a broken
• spirij driech the bones. --Solomon.
They that slander the read are like envious dogs, that bark
and bite at bones.-Zeno. .
Nature has given us two ears, two eves, and but one tongue ;
to the end, we should hear and see more than we speak.-
Socrates.
Keep thy tongue, aud keep thy friend. for few words cover
much wisdom, and a fool being silent is thought wise
Proud looks lose hearts, bu courteous words win them.--
Ferdin
He that knows how to speak, knows also when to be silent.--
Archimedes.
To expose one's self to great dangers for trivial advantages, is
to fish with a goldeo hook, where more may be lost than
garned.-- Augustus Cæsar
We ought either to be silent, or to speak things that are bet.
ter than silence - Pythagoras
Deride not the unfortunate.-Chilo.
'
EATING AND DRINKING.
Wine has drownied more than the sea.--Publius Syrus.
The belly is an unthankful beast, never requiting the plea-
sure done, but continually craving more than it needs.-
Crates.
The wicked man lives to eat and drink, but the good eats and !
drinks to live -- Plutarch.
The belly is the commanding part of the body.—Homer.
The first draught a man drinks cught to lie for thirst the
second for nourishment, the third for pleasure, and the
fourth for madness --Anacharsis.
Excess came from Asia to Rome : Ambition came from Rome
to all the worl.
Drunkenness is a bewitching devil, a pleasant poison, and a
sweet sin.--Augustine
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, han a stalled ox
and hatred therewith-Solomon.


204
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND
ELOQUENCE.
Brevity is a great praise of eloquence.:-Cicero.
Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest
cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot warlk-
Cicero.
It is easy to defend the innocent; but who is eloquent enough
to defend the guilty?—Publius Syrus.
An orator without judgment is a horse without a bridle.
Theophrutus.
As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the
mind is eloquence. -Cicero .
As a vessel is knowu by the sound, whether it be cracked or
not; só men are proved. by their speeches, whether they
he wise or foolish -Demosthenes.
Elcquence is of two kinds; that of the heart, which is called
divine; the other esterual, and merely the organ of con- #
ceits, thoughts, and sophistry.--Cicero.
Unprofitable eloquence is like the cypress, which is great and
tall, but bears no fruit. And
· Poets are born, but orators are made.-Anon.
FRIENDSHIP:
Friendship is stronger than kindred.—Publius Syrus.
Reprove thy friend privately ; commend him publicly.---
Solon.
It is better to decide a difference between enemies than
friends; for one of our friends will certainly becoine an
enemy, and one of our enemies a friend. --Bias
Go slowly to the entertainments of thy friends, but quickly
to their misfortu nes.-Chilo.
It is no small grief to a good nature to try his friends.
Euripides. W
FOLLY.
It is much better for a man to conceal his folly and ignorance
than to discover the same.
There can be no greater folly in man, than by much labour
to increase his goods, and with vain pleasure to lose his
soul. Gregory.


FATHERS OF THE CHURCH., 205
There is more hope of a fool, than him that is wise in his own
conceit.-Solomon.
· It is gieat folly for a man to muse much on such things as
pass bis understa: ding.
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise
man is in his heart.--Sirach.
INDUSTRY.
Learn some useful art, so that you may be independent of
the caprice of fortune.--Cato.
Idleness is the sepulchre of a living man.-- Anselm.
It is not for a man in authority to sleep a whole night.-
Homer.
'lee sloth ; for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the
body.-Cato.
When a man goes out, let him consider what he is to do ;
when he returns, what he has done ---Cleobulus.
The three things most difficult are. - to keep a secret, to for.
get an injury, and to make good use of leisure.---Chilo.
Prosperity engenders sloth.--Livy.
- JUSTICE..
Valour would cease to be a virtue, if there were no injustice.
Agesilaus
Delay in punishment is no privilege of pardon,
Not the pain, but the cause, makes the martyr. -- Ambrose.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker. - Bias.
Four things belong to a judge; to liear courteously, to answer
wisely, to consider soberly, and to give judgment without
partiality. --Socrates.
No man may be both accuser and judge. - Plutarch. -
, The accused is not guilty till he be convicted - Lactantius.
KINGS AND LAWS.
General calamities imply, in kings, general imbecility.
Kings ought to be environed with good-will, instead of
guards.- Bias.
It is the fault of princes if they are not esteemed ; as they
18


206.
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND
always have it in their power to procure the love of their •
subjects - Philip of Macedon.
The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is
as the dew on the grass. -Solomon.
The prince that is feared of many must, of necessity, fear
many.
A king ruleib as he ought, a tyrant as he lists; a king to the
profit of all, a tyrant only to please a few. ---Aristotle.
Kings ought to shun the company of the vicious, for the evil
they commit in his company is accounied his — Plato.
It li tle profits a prince to be ruler of many kingdoms, and the
• slave of many vices.
A king ought to take good heed to his counsellors, in noting
WIo so the his lusts, and who, intend the public profit. -
Plutarch
Where the love of the people is assured, the designs of the
seditious are thwarteri. – Bias,
A good prince is not the object of fear - Diogenes.
A prince ought to be aware not only of his enemies, but his
flattering friem.ls – Dionysius
The pubic has more interest in the punishment of an injury,
than he who receives it. --Cato the Elder.
As ignorant governows bring their country into many incon.
ven ences, 60 such as are devilishly politic utterly over-
throw the state. - Avon
Justice ought to be the rule to the will of kings.- Antigonus.
Laws not executed are of no value, and it well not made as
not practised.
To make an einpire durable, the magistrates must obey the
laws and the people t e magistrates -Solon.
' Laws are not made for the good.-Socrates.
Kings ought to be kings in all things.--Adrian.
Royalıy consists not in vain poinp, but in great virtues.--
Agesilaus.
LIFE AND DEATH.
An honourahle death is better than an inglorious life.-
Socrates
He who fears death has already lost the life he covets. --
Cato.


FATHERS OF THE CHURCN.
209
VIRTUE
,
It is difficult to persuade mankind that the love of virtue is
the love of themselves -Cirero.
Some, by admiring other men's virtues, become enemies to
their own vices -- Bias.
The remembrance of a well-spent life is sweet,
Praise is the hire of virtue.- Cicero.
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is
our duty.--Augú tine.
What you would not have done to yourselves, never do to
others. - Alexander Severus.
One ought to remember kindnesses received, and forget those
we have done.- Chilo
A righteous mao regardeth the life of his beast, but the ten-
der mercies of the wicked are cruel. --Solomun.
Do good to your friend, that he may be more wholly yours;
to your enemy, that he may become your friend.- Cleobulus.
Such as have virtue alway in their oruths, and neglect it
in practice, are like a bark, which emits a sound pleasing to
others, wbile itself is roseusible of the inusic.- Diogenes,
A good man cares pot for the veproofs.of evil men. -- D mo-
critus.
Every thing great is not always good, but all good things are
great. - D mosthenes.
Covet nothing over luch..-- Chilo.
A soul conversant with virtue, resemble a fountain facr it is
clear, and gentle and sweet, and con runicative, and rich,
and harmless, and inpocenil.- Epictetus, :
Satan is a subtle angler, apot uses great cunning in the casting
of his uet, and searching on the rein of water where every
one is delighted.- Basil.
In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in manhood just,
in old age prudent -Socrates,
He that helps the wicked, hurts the good-.Crates.
What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth
and justice. -Demosthenes.
Diversity of religion is the ground of persecution, in show;
but it is ambition, in effect.
The end of a dissolute life is, commonly, a desperate death,
-- Bion,
13*


210
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND
Virtue maketh men on the earth famous, in their graves illus-
trious, in the heavers immortal. -Chilo.
Nothing is profitable which is dishonest.--Cicero.
He thai works wickedness by another, is guilty of the fact
committent himself.- Biąs.
A work well begun is half ended. - Plato.
We should never re nember the benefits we have conferred
nor forvet the favours received. --Chilo.
The eve strais not while under the guidance of reason.-
Publius Syrus.
If you pursue good with labour, the labour passes away and
the 100: remains; but if you pursue pleasure with evil, the
pleasure passes away and the evil remains.-Cicero.
The jurige must be condemned, when he absolves the guilty.
- Publius Syrus.
Every vie has a cloak, and creeps in under the name of a
virtue.
Ingenuous shame, once lost, is never regained.--Publius
Syrus.
By others' vices, wise men amend their own.-Publius Syrus.
Trusi no secrets to a friend which, if reported, would bring
infamy.-Thales..
It is a noble satisfaction to be ill spoken of, when we are con-
scious of doing what is right. ---Alexander, King of Ma-
cedon.
We cannot control the tongues of others, but a good life
enables us to despise calumnies. - D Cato.
The vicious obey their passions, as slaves do their r.sasters.-
Divgenes.
Wicked iren cannot be friends, either among themselves or
with the gooi.--Socrates.
Vices that are familiar we pardon, and only new ones repre-
hend - Publius Syrus
Virtue, though momen:arily shamed, cannot be extinguished.
-- Publius Syrus
Every one should inake the case of the injured his own.-
Solon
The way to make ourselves admired, is to be what we affect
to be thought. --Socrates.
Virtue, and not the laws anal ordinances of men, is the rule
of a wise man.--Antisthenes.
No one ever lost his honour, except he who had it not.--
in Publius Syrus.


FATHERS OF THE CHURCH.
211
The most wicked, at heart, abhor the crimes they commit. -
Publius Syrus.
Successful guilt is the bane of society.--Publius Syrus.
Vice is the most dangerous, when it puts on the semblance of
virtue.-- Publius Syrus.
WISDOM.
Ignorant inen differ from beasts only in their figure..
Cleanthes
It is less pain to learn in youth, than to be ignorant in age.-
Solon.
The wise only profit by hearing the wisdom of others.---
Publius Syrus.
Wisdom provides things necessary, not superfluous.-Solon.
A wise man is never less alone than when he is alone.-
Ambrose.
He must be a wise man himself, who is capable of distin-
guishing one. — Diogenes.
Wisdom adorns riches, and shadows poverty.--Socrates.
Learning is an ornainent in prosperity, a refuge in adversity,
and the best provision in old age.- Aristotle.
Thev who educate children’ well, are more to be honoured,
than they who produce them ; for these only gave them
life, those the art of living well. - Aristotle.
It is no shame for a mau to learn that he knoweth not, what-
ever age he may be. --- Isocrates.
To know and not be able to perform, is doubly unfortunate.
-Solon.
Alexander the Great valued learning so highly, that he used
to say, “ that he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving
him knowledge, than to his father Philip for life.”
Socrates thanked God for three things ;- first that he was
born a man and not a woman ; second that he was born a
Grecian ; and thirdly, that he was a philosopher.
He is sufficiently well learned, that knows how to do well,
and has power enough to refrain from evil --Cicero.
Arrogance is the obstruction of wisdom.- Bion
One part of knowledge consists in being ignorant of such
things as are not worthy to be known.--Crates.
Wise men, though all laws were abolished, woul lead the
same lives.-- Aristophanes.


212
WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, &c.
Knowledge, without education, is but armed injustice.
Horace.
It is better to be unborn than untaught; for gnorance is the
root of misfortune. -Plato.
Wise men are instructed by reason. men of less understand-
ing by experience; the most ignorant by necessity; and
beasts by nature.-Cicero.
Aristippus being asked what he learnt hy philosophy, replied
he warnt to live well with all the world.
It is loss evil that ignorance should despise than tyrannise.
--Publius Syrus.
WOMEN.
A wanton eye is a messenger of an unchaste heart.-
Augustine.
A beautiful and chaste woman is the perfect workmanship of
God, the true glory of angels, the rare miracle of the earth,
and sole wonder of the world - !!. rmes.
As no man can tell where a shoe picieth better than he that
wears it, so no man can tell a woman's dis sition better
than that hath wedded her --Marcus Aurelius
Beauty in the faces of women, apri folly in their hearts, be
two worms that fret life and wasie goods
Women that are chaste when they are trusted. prove wantons.
when they are unjustly suspected
Trust not a woman when she weepoth, for it is her pature to
weep when she wanteth her will -Socrates.
Whoso findeth a wife, fincipih a good thing --Solumon.
Woman erther loves or lates, her affection, know no me-
cium. --- Plubius Syrus.
It is a blind man's question to ask, why those things are loved
which are beautiful.
Women that paint themselves to spem beautiful, do clearly
deface the image of their Creator.--Ambrose
Never praise a man for being like a woman, nor a woman for
rosembling a man.-Pædaretus.
Tuinble weclock is better than proud virginity.- Augustine.
Marriage, with peace, is the world's paradise; with strife, this
life's purgatory.


MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS.
213
A woman without dowry has no liberty to speak.--Euripides.
The Grecian ladies counted their age from their marriage, not
their birth.-Horner.
As a jewel of gold in a hog's snout, so is a fair woman with-
out virtue.--Solumon.
MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS.
As we must render an account of every ille word, so must
we likewise of our idle silence -- Ambrose.
A filthy subject defrauds Poetry of her due praise.
Advise not what is most pleasant, but what is most useful.-
Solon
Actions measured by time, seldom prove bitter by repentance.
" As I am Antunius," said the emperor, Rome is my city
and my country ; but, as I am a man, the world.”
Adultery desires no procreation but pleasure – Anselm.
As sight is in the eye, so is the mind in the soul.--Sophocles.
A stranger, if just, is not only to be preferred before a coun-
tryınan, buta kinsman.-Pathagoras
Be always at leisure to do good ; never make business an ex-
cuse to decline the offices of humanity.-M. Aurelius.
Bear, and blame not, what you cannot change.--Publius
Syrus.
Charity is the scope of all God's commands. - Chrysostome.
Cato said “he bad rather people should inquire why he had
not a statue erected to his inemory, than why he had."
Christ's coat indeed had !o seam, but the chureb's vesture is
of divers colours.--Ambrose.


214
MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS.
Courage eonsists not in hazarding without fear, but in being
resolutely minded in a just cause — Plutarch.
Conscience is the chamber of justice-Origen.
Diviuity cannot be defined.-Politeuphia.
Depend not on fortune, but conduct.- Publius Syrus.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honours, but deserving
them.- Aristotle.
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.--Socrates.
Fortune has now power over discretion. --- Solon.
Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit, --
Socrates.
Fortitude is the mean between fear and rashness.
Fortune dreads the brave, and is only terrible to the cow-
ard.- Seneca.
He who fears his servents is less than a servant.--Publius
Syrus.
He is a worthless being who lives only for himself. - Ibid.
He denies himself, who asks what it is impossible to grant.-
Publius Syrus.
However wretched a ſell w mortal may be, he is still a mem-
ber of our common species. --Seneca.
He threatens many who injures one.- Publius Syrus.
· Hope is a working man's dream – Pliny.
He is doubly sinſul who congratulates a successful knave.-
Publius Syrus.
ït is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to
suspect good.-Cicero.
It is difficult keeping that which is admired by many..
Public Syrus.
It is a fraud to borrow what we are not able to repay.-Ibid.
It is cruelty to the innocent not to punish the guilty.- Ibid."
Know thyself.—Chilo.
Labour is a mortal enemy to love, and a deadly foe to fancy.
Light cares speak, great ones are dumb.--Seneca.
· Memory tempers prosperity, mitigiates adversity, controls
youth, and delights old age.-- Lactantius. .
Moderate honours are wont to augment, but immoderate to
eliminish.-Theopoinpia.


216
MISCELLANEOUS MAXIMS.
The praise of a wise man is worth a whole theatre of others.
- Pittacus.
The remembrance of past calamities is painful.-- Publius
Syrus.
The useful and the beautiful are never apart.-- Periander.
There can be no affinity nearer than our country.- Plato.
The way of a fool is right--in his own eyes. -Solomon.
The contemplation that tends to solitude, is but a specious
title lo idleness.
War is the sink of all injustice.
We ought not to forget, that our slaves are our fellow men.
D. Cato.
We lesssn our wants by lessening our desires.---Laberius.
We must submit to the times.- Publius Syrus.
We ought to weigh well, what we can only once decide.--
Ibid.
Without danger, vanger cannot be surmounted. Ibid.
Wind puffs up empty bladders; opinion. fouls.-Socrates.
Wisdom prefers an unjust peace to a just war.
When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe
them.-Plate.
THE END.