A poor man claimed a house which a rich man had seized. The former
produced his deeds and instruments to prove his right, but the latter
had provided a number of witnesses; and, to support their evidence the
more effectually, he secretly presented the cadi with a bag containing
five hundred ducats, which the cadi received. When it came to a hearing,
the poor man told his story and produced his writings, but lacked
witnesses. The other, provided with witnesses, laid his whole stress on
them and on his adversary's defective law, who could produce none; he,
therefore, urged the cadi to give sentence in his favor. After the most
pressing solicitations, the judge calmly drew from beneath his sofa the
bag of five hundred ducats, which the rich man had given him as a bribe,
saying to him very gravely, "You have been much mistaken in the suit;
for if the poor man could produce no witnesses in confirmation of his
right, I, myself, can furnish him with at least five hundred." He threw
him the bag with reproach and indignation and decreed the house to the
poor plaintiff.
915
What greater ornament is there to a son than a father's glory; or what
to a father than a son's honorable conduct?
916
The honor is overpaid,
When he that did the act is commentator.
--_Shirley._
917
_By Hook or Crook._--This saying is probably derived from a forest
custom. Persons entitled to fuel wood in the king's forest were only
authorized to take it of the dead wood or branches of trees in the
forest, "with a cart, a hook, and a crook."
--_From Mulledulcia._
918
Who bids me hope, and in that charming word
Has peace and transport to my soul restor'd.
--_Lord Lyttleton._
919
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
--_Goethe._
920
How often disappointment tracks
The steps of hope!
--_Miss Landon._
921
He that lives upon hopes will die fasting.
922
Hoping is the finest sort of courage and you can never have enough of
it.
--_C. Wagner._
923
Who loses money, loses much;
Who loses friends, loses more;
Who loses hope, loses all: for he that wants hope is the poorest
man alive.
924
Were it no for hope the heart wad break.
--_Scotch._
925
Our hopes often end in--hopes.
926
The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The
brightness of our life is gone.
--_Longfellow._
927
Hope is sometimes a delusion; no hand can grasp a wave or a shadow.
928
So we do but live,
There's hope.
--_Terence._
929
_Hope._--"Hast thou hope?" they asked of John Knox, when he lay a-dying.
He spoke nothing, but "raised his finger and pointed upward," and so
died.
--_Carlyle._
930