[182] Perhaps the Spanish form of this proverb is still better: La
mentira tiene _cortas_ las piernas; for the lie does go, though not
far. Compare the French: La vérité, comme l’huile, vient au dessus.
[183] La verdad es hija de Dios.
[184] Vox populi, vox Dei.
[185] Tant vaut l’homme, tant vaut sa terre.
[186] Κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων.
[187] Le bruit est si fort, qu’on n’entend pas Dieu tonner.
[188] Εἷς ἀνὴρ, οὐδεὶς ἀνήρ.
[189] Sensus est nihil egregium præstari posse ab uno homine, omni
auxilio destituto.
[190] Χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά.
[191] The deepening of a proverb’s use among Christian nations as
compared with earlier applications of the same may be illustrated by an
example, which however, as not being directly theological, and thus not
bearing immediately upon the matter in hand, I shall prefer to append
in a note. An old Greek and Latin proverb, _A great city, a great
solitude_, (Magna civitas, magna solitudo,) seems to have dwelt merely
on the outside of things, and to have meant no more than this, namely,
that a city ambitiously laid out and upon a large scheme would with
difficulty find inhabitants sufficient, would wear an appearance of
emptiness and desolation; as there used to be a jest about Washington,
that strangers would sometimes imagine themselves deep in the woods,
when indeed they were in the centre of the city. But with deeper
cravings of the human heart after love and affection, the proverb was
claimed in an higher sense. We may take in proof these striking words
of De Quincey, which are the more striking that neither they nor the
context contain any direct reference to the proverb: “No man,” he
says, “ever was left to himself for the first time in the streets, as
yet unknown, of London, but he must have felt saddened and mortified,
perhaps terrified, by the sense of desertion and utter loneliness which
belongs to his situation. No loneliness can be like that which weighs
upon the heart in the centre of faces never ending, without voice or
utterance for him; eyes innumerable that have ‘no speculation’ in
their orbs which _he_ can understand; and hurrying figures of men and
women weaving to and fro, with no apparent purposes intelligible to a
stranger, seeming like a masque of maniacs, or a pageant of shadowy
illusions.” A direct reference to the proverb is to be found in some
affecting words of Lord Bacon, who glosses and explains it exactly in
this sense;—“For a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery
of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.”
[192] Chi ha l’amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a i fianchi.—Amor regge
senza legge. (Cf. Rom. xiii. 9, 10.)—Amor regge il suo regno senza
spada.—Amor non conosce travaglio. (Cf. Gen. xxix. 20, 30.)—Di tutte
le arti maestro è amore.—Di tutto condimento è amore.
[193] Evangelios pequeños.
[194] Der Weg zum Himmel geht durch Kreuzdorn. Compare the medieval
obverse of the same: Via Crucis, via lucis.
[195] No hiere Dios con dos manos.
[196] Paz y paciencia, y muerte con penitencia.
[197] _Memoirs of Margaret Fuller_, vol. 3, p. 266. In respect of
words like these, wrung out from moments of agony, and not the abiding
convictions of the utterer, may we not venture to hope that our own
proverb, _For mad words deaf ears_, is often graciously true, even in
the very courts of heaven?
[198] Wenn Gott ein Ding verdreufst, so verdreufst es auch bald die
Menschen.
[199] The following have all a right to be termed Christian proverbs:
Chi non vuol servir ad un solo Signor, à molti ha da servir;—E padron
del mondo chi lo disprezza, schiavo chi lo apprezza;—Quando Dios
quiere, con todos vientos llueve.
[200] Perimus licitis.
[201] Non quam late sed quam læte habites, refert.—Mas vale un pedazo
de pan con amor, que gallinas con dolor.
[202] Quien siembra abrojos, no ande descalzo. Compare the Latin: Si
vultur es, cadaver expecta; and the French: Maudissons sont feuilles;
qui les seme, il les recueille.
[203] No se mou la fulla, que Deu no ha vulla. This is one of the
proverbs of which the peculiar grace and charm nearly disappears in the
rendering.
[204] Quien à dos señores ha de servir, al uno ha de mentir.
[205] Verum mihi videtur illud: Dives aut iniquus, aut iniqui hæres.
Out of a sense of the same, as I take it, the striking Italian proverb
had its rise: Mai diventò fiume grande, chi non v’entrasse acqua
torbida.
[206] Πολλοί τοι ναρθηκοφόροι, παῦροι δέ τε βάκχοι.
[207] The fact which this proverb proclaims, of a great gulf existing
between what men profess and what they are, is one too frequently
repeating itself and thrusting itself on the notice of all, not to have
found its utterance in an infinite variety of forms, although none
perhaps so deep and poetical as this. Thus there is another Greek line,
fairly represented by this Latin:
Qui tauros stimulent multi, sed rarus arator;
and there is the classical Roman proverb: Non omnes qui habent
citharam, sunt citharœdi; and the medieval rhyming verse:
Non est venator quivis per cornua flator;
and this Eastern word: _Hast thou mounted the pulpit, thou art not
therefore a preacher_; with many more.
[208] Qui me amat, amat et canem meum. (_In Fest. S. Mich. Serm._ 1, §
3.)
[209] Libera me ab homine malo, a meipso.
[210] Ὀψὲ Θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά.
We may compare the Latin: Habet Deus suas horas, et moras; and the
Spanish: Dios no se queja, mas lo suyo no lo deja.
[211] Dii laneos habent pedes.
[212] _Life_, vol. i. p. 312.
[213] Wo der Teufel nicht hin mag kommen, da send er seinen Boten hin.
[214] La farina del diavolo se ne và in semola.