perhaps, even now suspect, that these neglected fragments of wisdom, which exist among all nations, still offer many interesting objects for the studies of the philosopher and the historian; and for men of the world still open an extensive school of human life and manners. The home-spun adages, and the rusty sayed saws' which remain in the mouths of the people, are adapted to their capacities and their humours; easily remembered, and readily applied; these are the philosophy of the vulgar, and often more sound than that of their masters! Whoever would learn what the people think, and how they feel, must not reject even these as insignificant. The proverbs of the street and of the market, true to nature, and lasting only because they are true, are records how the populace at Athens and at Rome were the same people as at Paris and at London, and as they had before been in the city of Jerusalem! Proverbs existed before books. The Spaniards date the origin of their refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego, 'sayings of old wives by their firesides,' before the existence of any writings in their language, from the circumstance that these are in the old romance or rudest vulgar idiom. The most ancient poem in the Edda,' the sublime speech of Odin,' abounds with ancient proverbs, strikingly descriptive of the ancient Scandinavians. Undoubtedly proverbs in the earliest ages long served as the unwritten language of morality, and even of the useful arts; like the oral traditions of the Jews, they floated down from age to age on the lips of successive generations. The name of the first sage who sanctioned the saying would in time be forgotten, while the opinion, the metaphor, or the expression, remained consecrated into a proverb! Such was the origin of those memorable sentences by which men learnt to think and to speak appositely; they were precepts which no man could contradict at a time when authority was valued more than opinion, and experience preferred to novelty. The proverbs of a father became the inheritance of a son; the mistress of a family perpetuated hers through her household; the workman condensed some traditional secret of his craft into a proverbial expression. When countries are not yet populous, and property has not yet produced great inequalities in its ranks, every day will show them how the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and drowsiness clothes a man with rags.' At such a period he who gave counsel gave wealth. It might therefore have been decided, a priori, that the most homely proverbs would abound in the most ancient writers and such we find in Hesiod; a poet whose learning was not drawn from books. It could only have been in the agricultural state that this venerable bard could have indicated a state of repose by this rustic proverb. πηδάλιον μὲν ὑπερ καπνό καταδειο. The envy of rival workmen is as justly described by a reference to the humble manufacturers of earthen-ware as by the elevated jealousies of the literati and the artists of a more polished age. The famous proverbial verse of Hesiod's Works and Days, Και κεραμένο κεράμει κότεει, is literally, The potter is hostile to the potter! The admonition of the poet to his brother, to prefer a friendly accommodation to a litigious law-suit, has fixed a paradoxical proverb often applied, πλεον ἡμῖν παντος. The half is better than the whole ! In the progress of time, the stock of popular proverbs received accessions from the highest sources of human intelligence; as the philosophers of antiquity formed their collections, they increased in weight and number.' Erasmus has pointed out some of these sources, in the responses of oracles; the allegorical symbols of Pythagoras; the verses of the poets; allusions to historical incident; mythology and apologue; and other recondite origins: such dissimilar matters coming from all quarters, were melted down into this vast body of aphoristic knowledge. 'words of the wise, and their dark sayings, as they are distinguished in that large collection which bears the name of the great Hebrew monarch, at length seem to have requir ed commentaries; for what else can we infer of the enigmatic wisdom of the sages, when the royal paræmiographer classes among their studies, that of understanding a properb and the interpretation?' This elevated notion of the Those dark sayings of the wise' accords with the bold conjecture of their origin, which the Stagirite has thrown out, who considered them as the wrecks of an ancient philosophy which had been lost to mankind by the fatal revolutions of all human things, and that those had been saved from the general ruin by their pithy elegance, and their diminutive form; like those marine shells found on the tops of moun tains, the relics of the Deluge! Even at a later period, the sage of Cheronea prized whem among the most solemn mysteries; and Plutarch has described them in a manner which proverbs may even still merit: Under the veil of these curious sentences are hid those germs of morals, which the masters of philosophy have afterwards developed into so many volumes.' At the highest period of Grecian genius, the tragic and the comic poets introduced into their dramas the proverbial style. St Paul quotes a line which still remains among the first exercises of our school-pens: Evil communications corrupt good manners.' It is a verse found in a fragment of Menander, the comic poet: φθείρεσιν ήθη χρησθ' όμιλαι κακαι. highest authority, Jesus himself, consecrates the use of As this verse is a proverb, and the apostle, and indeed the proverbs by their occasional application, it is uncertain whether St Paul quotes the Grecian poet, or only repeats some popular adage. Proverbs were bright shafts in the Greek and Latin quivers; and when Bentley, by a league of superficial wits, was accused of pedantry for his use of some ancient proverbs, the sturdy critic vindicated his taste, by showing that Cicero constantly introduced Greek proverbs into his writings-that Scaliger and Erasmus loved them, and had formed collections drawn from the stores of antiquity. Some difficulty has occurred in the definition. Proverbs must be distinguished from proverbial phrases, and from sententious maxims; but as proverbs have many faces, from their miscellaneous nature, the class itself scarcely admits of any definition. When Johnson defined a proverb to be a short sentence frequently repeated by the people," this definition would not include the most curious ones, which have not always circulated among the populace, nor even belong to them: nor does it designate the vital but qualities of a proverb. The pithy quaintness of old Howel has admirably described the ingredients of an exquisite proverb to be sense, shortness, and salt. A proverb is distinguished from a maxim or an apophthegm, by that brevity which condenses a thought or a metaphor, where one thing is said and another is to be applied; this often produces wit; and that quick pungency which excites surprise, strikes with conviction; this gives it an epigrammatic turn. George Herbert entitled the small collection which he formed Jacula Prudentum,' Darts or Javelins! something hurled and striking deeply; a characteristic of a proverb which possibly Herbert may have borrowed from a remarkable passage in Plato's dialogue of Protagoras, or the Sophists.' The influence of proverbs over the minds and conversa. tions of a whole people is strikingly illustrated by this philosopher's explanation of the term to laconise; the mode of speech peculiar to the Lacedæmomans. This people affected to appear unlearned, and seemed only emulous to excel the rest of the Greeks in fortitude and in military skill. According to Plato's notion, this was really a polí tical artifice, with a view to conceal their pre-eminent wisdom. With the jealousy of a petty state they attempted to confine their renowned sagacity within themselves, and under their military to hide their contemplative character! The philosopher assures those who in other cities imagined they laconised, merely by imitating the severe exercises, and the other warlike manners of the Lacedæmons, that they were grossly deceived: and thus curiously describes the sort of wisdom which this singular people practised. 6 If any one wishes to converse with the meanest of the Lacedæmonians, he wil at first find him for the most part, apparently, despicable in conversation; but afterwards, when a proper opportunity presents itself, this same mean person, like a skilful joculator, will hurt a ser tence worthy of attention short and contorted; so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no respect superior to a boy! That to lacanise, therefore, consista much more in philosophising than in the love of exercise understood by some of the present age, and was known the ancients, they being persuaded that the ability of 'tering such sentences as these is the province of a man erfectly learned. The seven sages were emulators, loers, and disciples of the Lacedæmonian erudition. Their sdom was a thing of this kind; viz., short sentences utered by each, and worthy to be remembered. These men, ssembling together, consecrated to Apollo the first fruits of their wisdoin; writing in the temple of Apollo, at Delhi, those sentences which are celebrated by all men, viz., Know Thyself! and Nothing too much! But on what account do I mention these things?-to show that the mode of philosophy among the ancients was a certain laconic dic tion.* The laconisms' of the Lacedæmonians evidently partook of the proverbial style: they were, no doubt, often =proverbs themselves. The very instances which Plato supplies of this' laconising' are two most venerable pro r A verus. All this elevates the science of proverbs, and indicates that these abridgments of knowledge convey great results with a parsimony of words prodigal of sense. They have, therefore, preserved many a short sentence, not repeated by the people.' It is evident, however, that the earliest writings of every people are marked by their most homely, or domestic proverbs; for these were more directly addressed to their wants. Franklin, who may be considered as the founder of a people, who were suddenly placed in a stage of civil society which as yet could afford no literature, discovered the philosophical cast of his genius, when he filled his almanacks with proverbs, by the ingenious contrivance of framing them into a connected discourse, delivered by an old man attending an auction. These proverbs,' he tells us,' which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, when their scattered counsels were brought together, made a great impression. They were reprinted in Britain, in a large sheet of paper, and stuck up in houses; and were twice translated in France, and distributed among their poor parishioners.' The same occurrence had happened with us ere we became a reading people. 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 in their tapestries, stamped on the most ordinary utensils, on the blades of their knives, the borders of their plates, and conned them out of Goldsmith's rings.' The 12 usurer, in Robert Green's 'Groat's worth of Wit,' compressed all his philosophy into the circle of his ring, having learnt sufficient Latin to understand the proverbial motto of Tu tibi cura!' The husband was reminded of his lordly authority when he only looked into his trencher, one of its learned aphorisms having descended to us,— The calmest husbands make the stormyest wives.' The English proverbs of the populace, most of which are still in circulation, were collected by old John Heywood. They are arranged by Tusser for the parlourthe guest's chamber-the hall-the table-lessons,' &c. Not a small portion of our ancient proverbs were adapted to rural life, when our ancestors lived more than ourselves amidst the works of God, and less among those of men. At this time, one of our old statesmen, in commending the art of compressing a tedious discourse into a few significant phrases, suggested the use of proverbs in diplomatic intercourse, convinced of the great benefit which would result to the negotiators themselves, as well as to others! I give a literary curiosity of this kind. A member of the House of Commons, in the reign of Elizabeth, made a speech entirely composed of the most homely proverbs. The subject was a bill against double-payments of book-debts. Knavish tradesmen were then in the habit of swelling out their book-debts with those who took credit, particularly to their younger customers. One of the members who began to speak for very fear shook,' and stood silent. The nervous orator was followed by a blunt and true reTaylor's Translation of Plato's Works, Vol. V, p. 36. One of the fruit teachers for such these roundels are called in the Gent. Mag., for 1793, p. 398, is engraved there, and the inscriptions of an entire set given.-See also the supplement to that volume, p. 1187. Heywood's Dialogue, conteyninge the Number in Effecte of all the Proverbs in the English Tunge, 1561.' There are more editions of this httle volume than Wharton has noticed. There is some humour in his narrative, but his metre and his ribaldry are heavy taxes on our curiosity. presentative of the famed governor of Baritaria, delivering himself thus It is now my chance to speak something, and that without humming or hawing. I think this law is a good law. Even reckoning makes long friends. As far goes the penny as the penny's master. Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt. Pay the reckoning overnight, and you shall not be troubled in the morning. If ready money be mensura publica, let every one cut his coat according to his cloth. When his old suit is in the wane, let him stay till that his money bring a new suit in the increase. Another instance of the use of proverbs among our statesmen occurs in a manuscript letter of Sir Dudley Carlton, written in 1632 on the impeachment of Lord Middiesex, who, he says, is this day to plead his own cause in the exchequer-chamber, about an account of fourscore thousand pounds laid to his charge. How his lordships sped 1 know not, but do remember well the French proverb, Qui mange de l'oye du Roy chiera une plume quarante ans apres. 'Who eats of the king's goose, will void a feather forty years after !' This was the era of proverbs with us; for then they were spoken by all ranks of society. The free use of trivial proverbs got them into disrepute; and as the abuse of a thing raises a just opposition to its practice, a slender wit affecting a cross humour,' published a little volume of Crossing of Proverbs, Cross-answers, and Cross-humours.' He pretends to contradict the most popular ones; but he has not always the genius to strike at amusing paradoxes.† Proverbs were long the favourites of our neighbours: n the splendid and refined court of Louis XIV,they gave rise to an odd invention. They plotted comedies and even fantastical ballets, from their subjects. In these Curiosities of Literature I cannot pass by such eccentric inventions unnoticed. A Comedy of proverbs is described by the Duke de la Valliere, which was performed in 1634, with prodigious success. He considers that this comedy ought to be ranked among farces; but it is gay, well-written, and curious for containing the best proverbs, which are happily introduced in the dialogue. The A more extraordinary attempt was A Ballet of proverbs. Before the opera was established in France, the ancient ballets formed the chief amusement of the court, and Louis XIV himself joined with the performers. singular attempt of forming a pantomimical dance out of proverbs is quite French; we have a ballet des proverbes, dancé par le Roi, in 1654.' At every proverb the scene changed, and adapted itself to the subject. I shall give two or three of the entrées that we may form some noton of these capriccios. The proverb was Tel menace qui a grand peur. 'He threatens who is afraid l' The scene was composed of swaggering scaramouches and L'occasion fait le larron. Opportunity was acted by le Sieur Beaubrun, but it is difficult to conceive how the real could personify the abstract personage. The thieves were the Duke d'Amville and Monsieur de la Chesnaye. Another entrée was the proverb of Ce qui vient de la flute s'en va au tambeur. What comes by the pipe goes by the tabor.' A loose dissipated officer was performed by le Sieur l'Anglois; the pipe by St Aignan, and the tabor by le Sieur le Comte! In this manner every proverb was spoken in * Townshend's Historical Collections, p. 283. It was published in 1616: the writer only catches at some verbal expressions-as, for instance, The vulgar proverb runs, The more the merrier.' The proverb, The pride of the rich makes the labours of the poor.' The cross. Not so! the labours of the poor make the pride of the rich.' The proverb, He runs far who never turns.' 1 The cross, Not so; he may break his neck in a short course.' action, the whole connected by dialogue: more must have depended on the acts than the poet.* The French long retained this fondness for proverbs; for they still have dramatic compositions entitled proverbes, on a more refined plan. Their invention is so recent, that the term is not in their great dictionary of Trevoux. These proverbes are dramas of a single act, invented by Marmontel, who possessed a peculiar vein of humour, but who designed them only for private theatricals. Each proverb furnished a subject for a few scenes, and created a situation powerfully comic: it is a dramatic amusement which does not appear to have reached us, but one which the celebrated Catharine of Russia delighted to compose for her own society. : Among the middle classes of society to this day, we may observe that certain family proverbs are traditionally preserved the favourite saying of a father is repeated by the sons; and frequently the conduct of a whole generation has been influenced by such domestic proverbs. This may be perceived in many of the mottos of our old nobility, which seem to have originated in some habitual proverb of the founder of the family. In ages when proverbs were most prevalent,such pithy sentences would admirably serve in the ordinary business of life, and lead on to decision, even in its greater exigencies. Orators, by some lucky proverb, without wearying their auditors, would bring conviction home to their bosoms; and great characters would appeal to a proverb, or deliver that, which, in time, by its aptitude, became one. When Nero was reproached for the ardour with which he gave himself up to the study of music, he replied to his censurers by the Greek proverb, An artist lives every where.' The emperor answered in the spirit of Rousseau's system, that every child should be taught some trade. When Cæsar, after anxious deliberation, decided on the passage of the Rubicon (which very event has given rise to a proverb,) rousing himself with a start of courage, he committed himself to Fortune, with that proverbial expression on his lips, used by gamesters in desperate play: having passed the Rubicon, he exclaimed The die is cast!' The answer of Paulus Emilius to the relations of his wife, who had remonstrated with him on his determination to separate himself from her against whom no fault could be alleged, has become one of our most familiar proverbs. This hero acknowledged the excellencies of his lady; but, requesting them to look on his shoe, which appeared to be well made, he observed, None of you know where the shoe pinches!" He either used a proverbial phrase, or by its aptness it has become one of the most popular. There are, indeed, proverbs connected with the characters of eminent men; they were either their favourite ones, or have originated with themselves: such a collection would form an historical curiosity. To the celebrated Bayard are the French indebted for a military proverb, which some of them still repeat. Ce que le gantelet gagne le gorgerin le mange, "What the gauntlet gets, the gorget consumes.' That reflecting soldier well calculated the profits of a military life, which consumes, in the pomp and waste which are necessary for its maintenance, the slender pay it receives, and even what its rapacity sometimes acquires. The favourite proverb of Erasmus was Festina lente! Hasten slowly! He wished it to be inscribed wherever it could meet our eyes; on public buildings, and on our rings and seals. One of our own statesinen used a favourite sentence, which has enlarged our stock of national proverbs. Sir Amias Pawlet, when he perceived too much hurry in any business, was accustomed to say, Stay awhile, to make an end the sooner.' Oliver Cromwell's coarse, but descriptive proverb, conveys the contempt he felt for some of his mean and troublesome coadjutors: Nits will be lice! The Italians have a proverb, which has been occasionally applied to certain political personages: and aspired to its sovereignty, lived long enough to repent the wild romantic ambition which provoked all Italy to confederate against him; the mysterious motto he assumed entered into the proverbs of his country! The Border proverb of the Douglases, It were better to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep,' was adopted by every border chief, to express, as Sir Walter Scott observes, what the great Bruce had pointed out, that the woods and hills of their country were their safest bulwarks, instead of the fortified places, which the Enghsh surpassed their neighbours in the arts of assaulting of defending. These illustrations indicate one of the sources of proverbs; they have often resulted from the spontaneous emotions or the profound reflections of some extraordinary individual, whose energetic expression was caught by a faithful ear, never to perish! The poets have been very busy with proverbs in all the languages of Europe: some appear to have been the favourite lines of some ancient poem: even in more refined times, many of the pointed verses of Boileau and Pope have become proverbial. Many trivial and lacome proverbs bear the jingle of alliteration or thyme, which assisted their circulation, and were probably struck off extempore; a manner which Swift practised, who was a ready coiner of such rhyming and ludicrous proverbs; delighting to startle a collector by his facetious or sarcastic humour, in the shape of an old saying and true. Some of these rhyming proverbs are, however, terse and elegant: we have The Italian 'Little strokes Fell great oaks.' Chi duo lepri caccia, Uno perde, e l'altro lascia. 'Who hunts two hares, loses one and leaves the other. The haughty Spaniard El dar es honor, Y el pedir dolor. To give is honour, to ask is grief.' And the French Ami de table Est variable. The friend of the table Is very variable.' The composers of these short proverbs were a nume rous race of poets, who, probably, among the dreams of their immortality never suspected that they were to descend to posterity, themselves and their works unknown, while their extempore thoughts would be repeated by their own nation. Proverbs were at length consigned to the people, when books were addressed to scholars; but the people did not find themselves so destitute of practical wisdom, by preserving their national proverbs, as some of those closet students who had ceased to repeat them. The various humours of mankind, in the mutability of human affairs, had given birth to every species; and men were wise, or merry, or satirical, and mourned or rejoiced in proverbs. Nations held an universal intercourse of proverbs, from the eastern to the western world; for we discover among those which appear strictly national many which are com mon to them all. Of our own familiar ones several may be tracked among the snows of the Latins and the Greeks, and have sometimes been drawn from The Mines of the East: like decayed families which remain in obscurity, they may boast of a high lineal descent whenever they recover their lost title-deeds. The vulgar proverb, To carry coals to Newcastle,' local and idio matic as it appears, however, has been borrowed and ap plied by ourselves; it may be found among the Persians; in the Bustan' of Sadi we have Infers piper in Hindas tan; To carry pepper to Hindostan among the Hebrews, To carry oil to a city of Olives; a similar proverb occurs in Greek; and in Galland's Maxims of the East' we may discover how many of the most common proverbs among us, as well as some of Joe Miller's jests, are of oriental origin. The resemblance of certain proverbs in different nations must, however, he often ascribed to the identity of human nature; similar situations and similar objects have unquestionably made men thank and act and express themselves 1 alike. All nations are parallels of each other! Hence all paræmiographers, or collectors of proverbs, complain of the difficulty of separating their own national proverbs from those which bad crept into the language from others, particularly when nations have held much intercourse together. We have a copious collection of Scottish proverbs by Kelly, but this learned man was mortified at discovering that many which he had long believed to have been genuine Scottish were not only English, but French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Greek ones; many of his Scottish proverbs are almost literally expressed among the fragments of remote antiquity. It would have surprised him further had he been aware that his Greek originals were themselves but copies, and might have been found in D'Herbelot, Erpenius, and Golius, and in many Asiatic works, which have been more recently introduced to the enlarged knowledge of the European student, who formerly found his most extended researches limited by Hellenistic lore. Perhaps it was owing to an accidental circumstance that the proverbs of the European nations have been preserved in the permanent form of volumes. Erasmus is usually considered as the first modern collector, but he appears to have been preceded by Polydore Vergil, who bitterly reproaches Erasmus with envy and plagiarism, for passing by his collection without even a poor compliment for the inventor! Polydore was a vain, superficial writer, who prided himself in leading the way on more topics than the present. Erasmus, with his usual pleasantry, provokingly excuses himself, by acknowledging that he had forgotten his friend's book! Few sympathize with the quarrels of authors; and since Erasmus has written a far better book than Polydore Vergil's, the original Adagia' is left only to be commemorated in literary history as one of its curíosities.* The Adagia' of Erasmus contains a collection of about five thousand proverbs, gradually gathered from a constant study of the ancients. Erasmus, blest with the genius which could enliven a folio, delighted himself and all Eu. rope by the continued accessions he made to a volume which even now may be the companion of literary men for a winter day's fire-side. The successful example of Erasmus commanded the imitation of the learned in Europe, and drew their attention to their own national proverbs. Some of the most learned men, and some not sufficiently so, were now occupied in this new study.† * At the Royal Institution there is a fine copy of Polydore Vergil's Adagia,' with his other work, curious in its day, De Inventoribus Rerum, printed by Frobenius, in 1521. The wood-cuts of this edition seem to be executed with inimitable delicacy, resembling a penciling which Raphael might have envied. f In Spain, Fernandez Nunes, a Greek professor, and the Marquis of Santellana, a grardee, published collections of their Refrans, or Proverbs, a term derived a referendo, because it is often repeated. The Refranes o Proverbios Castellanos,' par Cæsar Oudin, 1624, translated into French, is a valuable compilation. In Cervantes and Quevedo, the best practical illustrators, they are sown with no sparing hand. There is an ample collection of Italian proverbs, by Florio, who was an Englishman, of Italian origin, and who published 'Il Giardino di Ricreatione' at London. so early as in 1591, exceeding six thousand proverbs; but they are unexplained, and are often obscure. Another Italian in England, Torriano, in 1649, published an interesting collection in the diminutive form of a twenty-fours. It was subsequent to these publications in England, that in Italy Angelus Monosini, in 1604, published his collection; and Julius Varini, in 1642, produced his Scuola del Vulgo. In France, Oudin, after others had preceded him, published a collection of French proverbs, under the title of Curiosités Françoises. Fleury de Bellingen's Explication de Proverbes François, on comparing it with Les Illustres Proverbs Historiques, a subsequent publication, I discovered to be the same work. It is the first attempt to render the study of proverbs somewhat amusing. The plan consists of a dialogue between a philosopher and a Sancho Panza, who blurts out his proverbs with more delight than understanding. philosopher takes that opportunity of explaining them by the events in which they originated, which, however, are not always to be depended on. A work of high merit on French prove rhs is the unfinished one of the Abbé Tuet, sensible and fearned. A collection of Danish proverbs, accompanied by a French translation, was printed at Copenhagen, in a quarto volume, 1761. England may boast of no inferior parremiogra phers. The grave and julicious Comden, the religious Herbert, the entertaining Howel, the facetious Fuller, and the laborious Ray, with others, have preserved our national sayings. The Scottish have been largely collected and explained by the learned Kelly. An excellent anonymous collection, not un The The interest we may derive from the study of proverbs is not confined to their universal truths, nor to their poignant pleasantry; a philosophical mind will discover in proverbs a great variety of the most curious knowledge. The manners of a people are painted after life in their domestic proverbs; and it would not be advancing too much to assert, that the genius of the age might be often detected in its prevalent ones. The learned Selden tells us, that the proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews; the reason assigned was, because by them he knew the minds of several nations, which,' said he, is a brave thing, as we count him wise who knows the minds and the insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them.' Lord Bacon condensed a wide circuit of philosophical thought, when he observed that 'the genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.' Proverbs peculiarly national, while they convey to us the modes of thinking, will consequently indicate the modes of acting among a people. The Romans had a proverbial expression for their last stake in play, Rem ad triarios venisse, the reserve are engaged!' a proverbial expression, from which the military habits of the people might be infer red; the triarii being their reserve. A proverb has preserved a curious custom of ancient coxcombry which originally came from the Greeks. To men of effeminate manners in their dress, they applied the proverb of Unico digitulo scalpit caput. Scratching the head with a single finger was, it seems, done by the critically nice youths in Rome, that they might not discompose the economy of their hair. The Arab, whose unsettled existence makes him miserable and interested, says, ' Vinegar given is better than honey bought.' Every thing of high esteem with him who is so often parched in the desert is described as milk-How large his flow of milk!' is a proverbial expression with the Arab, to distinguish the most copious eloquence. To express a state of perfect repose, the Arabian proverb is, I throw the rein over my back:' an allusion to the loosening of the cords of the camels which are thrown over their backs when they are sent to pasture. We discover the rustic manners of our ancient Britons in the Cambrian proverbs; many relate to the hedge. The cleanly Briton is seen in the hedge: the horse looks not on the hedge but the corn: the bad husband's hedge is full of gaps.' The state of an agricultural people appears in such proverbs as, You must not count your yearlings till May. day and their proverbial sentence for old age is, 'An old man's end is to keep sheep! Turn from the vagrant Arab and the agricultural Briton to a nation existing in a high state of artificial civilization; the Chinese proverbs frequently allude to magnificent buildings. Affecting a more solemn exterior than all other nations, a favourite proverb with them is, 'A grave and majestic outside is, as it were, the palace of the soul.' Their notion of government is quite architectural. They say, 'A sovereign may be compared to a hall; his officers to the steps that lead to it; the peo. ple to the ground on which they stand.' What should we think of a people who had a proverb, that 'He who gives blows is a master, he who gives none is a dog? We should instantly decide on the mean and servile spirit of those who could repeat it; and such we find to have been that of the Bengalese, to whom the degrading proverb belongs, derived from the treatment they were used to receive from their Mogul rulers, who answered the claims of their creditors by a vigorous application of the whip! In some of the Hebrew proverbs we are struck by the frequent allusions of that fugitive people to their own history. The cruel oppression exercised by the ruling power, and the confidence in their hope of change in the day of retribution, was delivered in this Hebrew proverb-When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes! The fond idolatry of their devotion to their ceremonial law, and to every thing connected with their sublime Theocracy, in their magnificent Temple, is finely expressed by this proverb-'None ever took a stone out of the Temple, but the dust did flv into his eyes.' The Hebrew proverb that A fast for a dream, is as fire for stubble,' which it kindles, could only have been invented by a people whose superstitions atcommon, in various languages, 1707: the collector and translator was Dr J. Mapletoft. It must be acknowledged that although no nation exceeds our own in sterling sense, we rarely rival the delicacy, the wit, and the felicity of expression of the Spanish and Italian, and the poignancy of some of the French proverbs. tached a holy mystery to fasts and dreams. They imagined that a religious fast was propitious to a religious dream; or to obtain the interpretation of one which had troubled their imagination. Peyssonel, who long resided among the Turks, observes, that their proverbs are full of sense, ingenuity, and elegance, the surest test of the intellectual abilities of any nation. He said this to correct the volatile opinion of De Tott, who, to convey an idea of their stupid pride, quotes one of their favourite adages, of which the truth and candour are admirable; Riches in the Indies, wit in Europe, and pomp among the Ottomans.' The Spaniards may appeal to their proverbs to show that they were a high-minded and independent race. A Whiggish jealousy of the monarchical power stamped itself on this ancient one, Va el rey hasta do puede, y no hasta do quiere: The king goes as far as he is able, not as far as he desires.' It must have been at a later period, when the national genius became more subdued, and every Spaniard dreaded to find under his own roof a spy or an informer, that another proverb arose, Con el rey y la inquisicion, chiton! With the king and the inquisition, hush!' The gravity and taciturnity of the nation have been ascribed to the effects of this proverb. Their popular but suppressed feelings on taxation, and on a variety of dues exacted by their clergy, were murmured in proverbs-Lo que no lleva Christo lleva el fisco! 'What Christ takes not, the exchequer carries away! They have a number of sarcastic proverbs on the tenacious gripe of the 'abad avariento,' the avaricious priest, who, having eaten the olio offered, claims the dish! A striking mixture of chivalric habits, domestic decency, and epicurean comfort, appears in the Spanish proverb, La muger y la salsa a la mano de la lanca: The wife and the sauce by the hand of the lance;' to honour the dame, and to have the sauce near. The The Italian proverbs have taken a tinge from their deep and politic genius, and their wisdom seems wholly concentrated in their personal interests. I think every tenth proverb, in an Italian collection, is some cynical or some selfish maxim: a 'book of the world for worldlings!' The Venetian proverb Pria Veneziani, poi Christiane: First Venetian, and then Christian!' condenses the whole spirit of their ancient Republic into the smallest space possible. Their political proverbs, no doubt, arose from the extraordinary state of a people, sometimes distracted among republics, and sometimes servile in petty courts. Italian says, I popoli s'ammazzano, ed i prencipi s'abbracciano: The people murder one another, and princes embrace one another.' Chi prattica co' grandi, l'ultimo â tavola, e'l primo a' strappazzi: Who dangles after the great is the last at table, and the first at blows,' Chi non sa adulare, non sa regnare: Who knows not to flatter, knows not to reign.' Chi serve in corte muore sul' pagliato: 'Who serves at court dies on straw.' Wary cunning in domestic life is perpetually impressed. An Italian proverb, which is immortalized in our language, for it enters into the history of Milton, was that by which the elegant Wotton counselled the young poetic traveller to have-Il viso sciolto, ed i pensieri stretti, An open countenance, but close thoughts. In the same spirit, Chi parla semina, chi tace raccoglie: The talker sows, the silent reaps;' as well as, Fatti di miele, e ti mangieran le mosche; Make yourself all honey, and the flies will devour you.' There are some which display a deep knowledge of human nature: A Lucca ti vidi, â Pisa ti connobbi! I saw you at Lucca, 1 knew you at Pisa Guardati d'aceto, di vin dolce: Beware of vinegar made of sweet wine,' provoke not the rage of a patient man! Among a people who had often witnessed their fine country devastated by petty warfare, their notion of the military character was not usually heroic. Il soldato per far male é ben pagato: The soldier is well paid for doing mischief.' Soldato, acqua, e fuoco, presto si fan luoco: 'A soldier, fire, and water, soon make room for themselves.' But in a poetical people, endowed with great sensibility, their proverbs would sometimes be tender and fanciful. They paint the activity of friendship, Chi ha l'amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a i fianchi: Who feels love in the breast, feels a spur in his limbs or its generous passion. Gli amici legono la borsa con un filo di ragnatelo: Friends tie their purse with a cobweb's thread.' They characterized the universal lover by an elegant proverb Appicare il Maio ad ogn'uscio: To hang every door with May; alluding to the bough which in the nights of May the country-people are accustomed to plant before the door of their mistress. If we turn to the French, we discover that the military genius of France dictated the proverb, Maille a maille se fait le haubergeon: Link by link is made the coat of mail and Tel coup de langue est pire qu'un coup de lance: The tongue strikes deeper than the lance and Ce qui vient du tambour s'en retourne a la flute: What comes by the tabor goes back with the pipe.' Point d'argent point de Suisse has become proverbial, ob serves an Edinburgh Reviewer; a striking expression, which, while French or Austrian gold predominated, was justly used to characterize the iberal and selfish policy of the cantonal and federal governments of Switzerland, when it began to degenerate from its moral patriotism. The ancient, perhaps the extinct, spirit of Englishmen, was once expressed by our proverb, Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion ;' i. e. the first of the yeomanry rather than the last of the gentry. A foreign philosopher might have discovered our own ancient skill in archery among our proverbs; for none but true toxophilites could have such a proverb as, I will either make a shaft or a bolt of it! signifying, says the author of Ivanhoe, a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoken of the bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that of the long-bow was called a shaft. Those instances sufficiently demonstrate that the charac teristic circumstances and feelings of a people are discovered in their popular notions, and stamped on their familiar proverbs. It is also evident that the peculiar, and often idiomatic, humour of a people is best preserved in their proverbs. There is a shrewdness, although deficient in delicacy, in the Scottish proverbs; they are idiomatic, facetious, and strike home. Kelly, who has collected three thousand, informs us, that, in 1725, the Scotch were a great proverbial nation; for that few among the better sort will converse any considerable time, but will confirm every asser. tion and observation with a Scottish proverb. The specu lative Scotch of our own times have probably degenerated in prudential lore, and deem themselves much wiser than their proverbs. They may reply by a Scotch proverb on proverbs, made by a great man in Scotland, who, having given a splendid entertainment, was harshly told, that Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them; but he readily answered, 'Wise men make proverbs, and fools repeat them! National humour, frequently local and idiomatical, depends on the artificial habits of mankind, so opposite to each other; but there is a natural vein, which the populace, always true to nature, preserve even among the gravest peo ple. The Arabian proverb, The barber learns his art on the orphan's face; the Chinese, In a field of melons do not pull up your shoe ; under a plum-tree do not adjust your cap-to impress caution in our conduct under circum stances of suspicion-and the Hebrew one, 'He that hath had one of his family hanged may not say to his neighbor, hang up this fish! are all instances of this sort of humour. The Spaniards are a grave people, but no nation has equalled them in their peculiar humour. The genius of Cervantes partook largely of that of his country; that man. tle of gravity, which almost conceals under it a latent facetiousness, and with which he has imbued his style and manner with such untranslateable idiomatic raciness, may be traced to the proverbial erudition of his nation. • To steal a sheep, and give away the trotters for God's sake" is Cervantic nature! To one who is seeking an opportunity to quarrel with another, their proverb runs, Si quieres dar palos a su muger pidele al sol a bever, Hast thou a mind to quarrel with thy wife, bid her bring water to thee in the sun-shine!-a very fair quarrel may be picked up about the motes in the clearest water! On the judges in Gallicia, who, like our former justices of peace, for half a dozen chickens would dispense with a dozen of penal statutes," A juezes Gallicianos, con los pies en los manos; 'To the judges of Gallicia go with feet in hand; a droll allusion to a present of poultry, usually held by the legs. To de scribe persons who live high without visible ineans, Los que cabritos venden, y cabras no tienen, dedonde los vienen? They that sell kids and have no goals, how came they by them? El vino no trae bragas, Wine wears no breeches,' for men in wine expose their most se cret thoughts. Vino di un orejo, Wine of one ear is good wine; for at bad, shaking our heads, both our ears are visible; but at good, the Spaniard, by a natural gestculation lowering one side, shows a single ear. Proverbs abounding in sarcastic humour, and found |