[102] "Don't speak ill of the bridge that bore you safe over
the stream" seems to be the European equivalent.
When love is intense, both find room enough upon one bench; afterwards,
they may find themselves cramped in a space of sixty cubits.[103]
[103] Python, of Byzantium, was a very corpulent man. He once
said to the citizens, in addressing them to make friends
after a political dispute: "Gentlemen, you see how stout
I am. Well, I have a wife at home who is still stouter.
Now, when we are good friends, we can sit together on a
very small couch; but when we quarrel, I do assure you,
the whole house cannot contain us."--_Athenæus_, xii.
The place honours not the man; it is the man who gives honour to the
place.