_Hercules Furens. i. 1, 84._
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.[715-1]
_Hercules Furens. 255._
A good man possesses a kingdom.[715-2]
_Thyestes. 380._
I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the
proper judge of the man.[715-3]
_On a Happy Life. 2._ (_L' Estrange's Abstract, Chap. i._)
FOOTNOTES:
[714-5] See Cowper, page 424.
[714-6] See Rogers, page 455.
[714-7] See Dryden, page 275.
[714-8] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.
[714-9] See Dryden, page 267.
[714-10] See Theobald, page 352.
[715-1] See Harrington, page 39.
[715-2] See Dyer, page 22.
[715-3] See Watts, page 303.
PHÆDRUS. 8 A. D.
(_Translation by H. T. Riley, B. A._[715-4])
Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.
_Book i. Fable 2, 31._
He who covets what belongs to another deservedly loses his own.
_Book i. Fable 4, 1._
That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving
advice to others, I will show in a few lines.
_Book i. Fable 9, 1._
Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he
speaks the truth, gains no belief.
_Book i. Fable 10, 1._
By this story [The Fox and the Raven] it is shown how much
ingenuity avails, and how wisdom is always an overmatch for
strength.
_Book i. Fable 13, 13._
No one returns with good-will to the place which has done him a
mischief.
_Book i. Fable 18, 1._
It has been related that dogs drink at the river Nile running
along, that they may not be seized by the crocodiles.[715-5]
_Book i. Fable 25, 3._
Every one is bound to bear patiently the results of his own
example.
_Book i. Fable 26, 12._
Come of it what may, as Sinon said.
_Book iii. The Prologue, 27._
Things are not always what they seem.[716-1]
_Book iv. Fable 2, 5._
Jupiter has loaded us with a couple of wallets: the one, filled
with our own vices, he has placed at our backs; the other, heavy
with those of others, he has hung before.[716-2]
_Book iv. Fable 10, 1._
A mountain was in labour, sending forth dreadful groans, and
there was in the region the highest expectation. After all, it
brought forth a mouse.[716-3]
_Book iv. Fable 23, 1._
A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man, who in endeavouring to
crush it gave himself a hard slap. Then said the fly jeeringly,
"You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death;
what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?"
_Book v. Fable 3, 1._
"I knew that before you were born." Let him who would instruct a
wiser man consider this as said to himself.
_Book v. Fable 9, 4._
FOOTNOTES:
[715-4] Bohn's Classical Library.
[715-5] Pliny in his "Natural History," book viii. sect. 148, and
Ælian in his "Various Histories" relate the same fact as to the
dogs drinking from the Nile. "To treat a thing as the dogs do the
Nile" was a common proverb with the ancients, signifying to do it
superficially.
[716-1] See Longfellow, page 612.
[716-2] Also alluded to by Horace, Satires, ii. 3, 299; Catullus,
22, 21; and Persius, 4, 24.
[716-3] See Horace, page 706.
PLINY THE ELDER. 23-79 A. D.
(_Translation by J. Bostock, M. D., and H. T. Riley, B. A., with slight
alterations._[716-4])
In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered
that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed,
word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment.
_Natural History. Book i. Dedication, Sect. 22._
The world, and whatever that be which we call the heavens, by the
vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a
deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created nor subject
at any time to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no
concern of man; nor can the human mind form any conjecture
concerning it.
_Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 1._
It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things,
whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.
_Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 20._
Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers
send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it
smooths every part which is rough.[717-1]
_Natural History. Book ii. Sect. 234._
It is far from easy to determine whether she [Nature] has proved
to him a kind parent or a merciless stepmother.[717-2]
_Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 1._
Man alone at the very moment of his birth, cast naked upon the
naked earth, does she abandon to cries and lamentations.[717-3]
_Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 2._
To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to
man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked
upon as a miracle of precocity.[718-1]
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 2._
Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing
without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and
in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but
weep.[718-2]
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 4._
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.[718-3]
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 5._
Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvellous when it
comes to our knowledge for the first time?[718-4] How many
things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have
been actually effected?
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 6._
The human features and countenance, although composed of but some
ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many
thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be
distinguished from one another.[718-5]
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 8._
All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon
serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to
flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The
same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters
their throat.[718-6]
_Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 15._
It has been observed that the height of a man from the crown of
the head to the sole of the foot is equal to the distance between
the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in
a straight line.
_Natural History. Book vii. Sect. 77._
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert
it.[719-1]
_Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 103._
Bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a
little larger than mice, their claws alone being prominent. The
mother then licks them gradually into proper shape.[719-2]
_Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 126._
It is asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the
Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the
crocodile.[719-3]
_Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 148._
It has become quite a common proverb that in wine there is
truth.[719-4]
_Natural History. Book xiv. Sect. 141._
Cincinnatus was ploughing his four jugera of land upon the
Vaticanian Hill,--the same that are still known as the Quintian
Meadows,--when the messenger brought him the dictatorship,
finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work.
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 20._
The agricultural population, says Cato, produces the bravest men,
the most valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least
given of all to evil designs. . . . A bad bargain is always a
ground for repentance.
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 26._
The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to profit by the
folly of others.[720-1]
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 31._
Always act in such a way as to secure the love of your
neighbour.[720-2]
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44._
It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that
nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be
done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which
reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 44._
The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.
_Natural History. Book xviii. Sect. 249._
Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less
share of our consideration.
_Natural History. Book xix. Sect. 59._
Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd
numbers are the most effectual?[720-3]
_Natural History. Book xxviii. Sect. 23._
It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously
adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be,
without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other,--a
practice which has now passed into a proverb.[720-4] It was also
a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit it
to the view of the passers-by in his studio, while he himself,
concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms. . .
. Under these circumstances, they say that he was censured by a
shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one latchet too
few. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the
former error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticise
the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head
out and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion
beyond the shoes,[721-1]--a piece of advice which has equally
passed into a proverbial saying.
_Natural History. Book xxxv. Sect. 84._
FOOTNOTES:
[716-4] Bohn's Classical Library.
[717-1] Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is
it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor
cause any waves?--PLUTARCH: _Natural Questions, ix._
The venerable Bede relates that Bishop Adain (A. D. 651) gave to a
company about to take a journey by sea "some holy oil, saying, 'I
know that when you go abroad you will meet with a storm and
contrary wind; but do you remember to cast this oil I give you
into the sea, and the wind shall cease
immediately.'"--_Ecclesiastical History, book iii. chap. xiv._
In Sparks's edition of Franklin's Works, vol. vi. p. 354, there
are letters between Franklin, Brownrigg, and Parish on the
stilling of waves by means of oil.
[717-2]
To man the earth seems altogether
No more a mother, but a step-dame rather.
DU BARTAS: _Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, third day._
[717-3] He is born naked, and falls a whining at the
first.--BURTON: _Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, mem. 3,
subsect. 10._
And when I was born I drew in the common air, and fell upon the
earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I
uttered was crying, as all others do.--_The Wisdom of Solomon,
vii. 3._
It was the custom among the ancients to place the new-born child
upon the ground immediately after its birth.
[718-1] This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle in his
Natural History, as also by some modern physiologists.
[718-2] See Tennyson, page 632.
[718-3] See Burns, page 446.
[718-4] Omne ignotum pro magnifico (Everything that is unknown is
taken to be grand).--TACITUS: _Agricola_, 30.
[718-5] See Sir Thomas Browne, page 218.
[718-6] Madame d'Abrantes relates that when Bonaparte was in Cairo
he sent for a serpent-detecter (Psylli) to remove two serpents
that had been seen in his house. He having enticed one of them
from his hiding-place, caught it in one hand, just below the
jaw-bone, in such a manner as to oblige the mouth to open, when
spitting into it, the effect was like magic: the reptile appeared
struck with instant death.--_Memoirs, vol. i. chap. lix._
[719-1] This is alluded to by Cicero in his letters to Atticus,
and is mentioned by Ælian (Animated Nature, book vi. chap. 41). It
is like our proverb, "Rats leave a sinking ship."
[719-2] See Burton, page 186.
Not unlike the bear which bringeth forth
In the end of thirty dayes a shapeless birth;
But after licking, it in shape she drawes,
And by degrees she fashions out the pawes,
The head, and neck, and finally doth bring
To a perfect beast that first deformed thing.
DU BARTAS: _Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, first day._
[719-3] See Phædrus, page 715.
[719-4] See Shakespeare, page 152.
[720-1] See Publius Syrus, page 708.
[720-2] A maxim of Cato.
[720-3] See Shakespeare, page 46. Also Lover, page 583.
Numero deus impare gaudet (The god delights in odd
numbers).--VIRGIL: _Eclogæ, 8, 75._
[720-4] Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit.--ERASMUS.
The form generally quoted, "Nulla dies sine linea" (No day without
a line), is not attested.
[721-1] Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret (Let not a shoemaker
judge above his shoe).
QUINTILIAN. 42-118 A. D.
We give to necessity the praise of virtue.[721-2]
_Institutiones Oratoriæ, i. 8, 14._
A liar should have a good memory.[721-3]
_Institutiones Oratoriæ, iv. 2, 91._
Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake.[721-4]
_Institutiones Oratoriæ, vi. 2, 30._
Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem
foolish.[721-5]
_Institutiones Oratoriæ, x. 7, 21._
FOOTNOTES:
[721-2] See Chaucer, page 3.
[721-3] See Sidney, page 264.
[721-4] See Prior, page 288.
[721-5] See Pope, page 332.
JUVENAL. 47-138 A. D.
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.[721-6]
_Satire ii. 83._
Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher,
physician; fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjuror,--he knew
everything.[721-7]
_Satire iii. 76._
Nobility is the one only virtue.[721-8]
_Satire viii. 20._
FOOTNOTES:
[721-6] See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.
[721-7] See Dryden, page 268.
[721-8] See Percy, page 406.
MARTIAL. 40-102 A. D.
I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; this only I can
say, I do not love thee.[722-1]
_Epigram i. 32._
The good man prolongs his life; to be able to enjoy one's past
life is to live twice.[722-2]
_Epigram x. 23, 7._
The bee enclosed and through the amber shown
Seems buried in the juice which was his own.[722-3]
_Book iv. 32._
Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day.[722-4]
_Book x. 47, 13._
FOOTNOTES:
[722-1] See Brown, page 286.
[722-2] See Pope, page 336.
[722-3] See Bacon, page 168.
[722-4] See Milton, page 240.
PLUTARCH. 46(?)-120(?) A. D.
(_From Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, corrected and revised by
A. H. Clough._)
As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts
of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the
margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy
deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.[722-5]
_Life of Theseus._
From Themistocles began the saying, "He is a second Hercules."
_Life of Theseus._
The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which
flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud.
_Life of Romulus._
Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told
him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and
contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better
to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are
at home make friendship with me."
_Life of Solon._
Themistocles said that he certainly could not make use of any
stringed instrument; could only, were a small and obscure city
put into his hands, make it great and glorious.
_Life of Themistocles._
Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike,
Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear."[723-1]
_Life of Themistocles._
Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us
both a lesson."
_Life of Themistocles._
Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's
means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had
the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command
the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands
me, and you command your mother."[723-2]
_Life of Themistocles._
"You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been
famous if I had been of Seriphus;[723-3] nor you, had you been of
Athens."
_Life of Themistocles._
Themistocles said that a man's discourse was like to a rich
Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can
be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is
contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.[723-4]
_Life of Themistocles._
When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing
himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children
and said: "Children, we had been undone, if we had not been
undone."
_Life of Themistocles._
Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it
inspires an impulse to practise.
_Life of Pericles._
For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting
solidity or exactness of beauty.[724-1]
_Life of Pericles._
So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth
of anything by history.
_Life of Pericles._
Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.
_Life of Pericles._
To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the
force of human nature.
_Life of Fabius._
Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable:
"It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied
against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle,
uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to
hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister
to its appetites."
_Life of Coriolanus._
Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says,
is lost to us by incredulity.
_Life of Coriolanus._
A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his
friends, who demanded, "Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was
she not fruitful?" holding out his shoe, asked them whether it
was not new and well made. "Yet," added he, "none of you can tell
where it pinches me."
_Life of Æmilius Paulus._
The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros,
and one told him, "The enemy's ships are more than ours,"
replied, "For how many then wilt thou reckon me?"[725-1]
_Life of Pelopidas._
Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight
might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another
earth, by going into it he could remove this.
_Life of Marcellus._
It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the
belly, which has no ears.[725-2]
_Life of Marcus Cato._
Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than
fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools,
but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.
_Life of Marcus Cato._
He said that in his whole life he most repented of three things:
one was that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another, that he
went by water when he might have gone by land; the third, that he
had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.
_Life of Marcus Cato._
Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain."[725-3]
_Life of Caius Marius._
Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great
battles.[725-4]
_Life of Caius Marius._
Lysander said that the law spoke too softly to be heard in such a
noise of war.
_Life of Caius Marius._
As it is in the proverb, played Cretan against Cretan.[725-5]
_Life of Lysander._
Did you not know, then, that to-day Lucullus sups with Lucullus?
_Life of Lucullus._
It is no great wonder if in long process of time, while fortune
takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should
spontaneously occur. If the number and variety of subjects to be
wrought upon be infinite, it is all the more easy for fortune,
with such an abundance of material, to effect this similarity of
results.[726-1]
_Life of Sertorius._
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things
which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves
up when taken little by little.
_Life of Sertorius._
Agesilaus being invited once to hear a man who admirably imitated
the nightingale, he declined, saying he had heard the nightingale
itself.[726-2]
_Life of Agesilaus II._
It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its
character, and make it either good or bad.
_Life of Agesilaus II._
The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought
forth a mouse."[726-3]
_Life of Agesilaus II._
Pompey bade Sylla recollect that more worshipped the rising than
the setting sun.[726-4]
_Life of Pompey._
When some were saying that if Cæsar should march against the city
they could not see what forces there were to resist him, Pompey
replied with a smile, bidding them be in no concern, "for
whenever I stamp my foot in any part of Italy there will rise up
forces enough in an instant, both horse and foot."
_Life of Pompey._
The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the
clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.
_Life of Alexander._
Whenever Alexander heard Philip had taken any town of importance,
or won any signal victory, instead of rejoicing at it altogether,
he would tell his companions that his father would anticipate
everything, and leave him and them no opportunities of performing
great and illustrious actions.[727-1]
_Life of Alexander._
Alexander said, "I assure you I had rather excel others in the
knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power
and dominion."
_Life of Alexander._
When Alexander asked Diogenes whether he wanted anything, "Yes,"
said he, "I would have you stand from between me and the sun."
_Life of Alexander._
When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, "I wished
my wife to be not so much as suspected."[727-2]
_Life of Cæsar._
For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows
than the second man in Rome.[727-3]
_Life of Cæsar._
Using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon
dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," he took the
river.[727-4]
_Life of Cæsar._
"And this," said Cæsar, "you know, young man, is more
disagreeable for me to say than to do."[728-1]
_Life of Cæsar._
Go on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and his
fortunes in your boat.[728-2]
_Life of Cæsar._
Cæsar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who
answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not
past."[728-3]
_Life of Cæsar._
Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a
thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.
_Life of Phocion._
Demosthenes told Phocion, "The Athenians will kill you some day
when they once are in a rage." "And you," said he, "if they are
once in their senses."[728-4]
_Life of Phocion._
Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments
smelt of the lamp.
_Life of Demosthenes._
Demosthenes overcame and rendered more distinct his inarticulate
and stammering pronunciation by speaking with pebbles in his
mouth.
_Life of Demosthenes._
In his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would
stand and go through his exercises.
_Life of Demosthenes._
Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of
Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in
language like theirs.
_Life of Cicero._
(_From Plutarch's Morals. Translated by several hands; corrected and
revised by W. W. Goodwin, Ph.D., Harvard University._)
For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks
hollow.[728-5]
_Of the Training of Children._
It is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man you will
learn to halt.
_Of the Training of Children._
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in the
felicity of lighting on good education.
_Of the Training of Children._
It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the
glory belongs to our ancestors.
_Of the Training of Children._
According to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult.
_Of the Training of Children._
To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying
and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.
_Of the Training of Children._
Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations
and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by
whipping.
_Of the Training of Children._
Nothing made the horse so fat as the king's eye.
_Of the Training of Children._
Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions.
_Of the Training of Children._
'T is a wise saying, Drive on your own track.
_Of the Training of Children._
It is a point of wisdom to be silent when occasion requires, and
better than to speak, though never so well.
_Of the Training of Children._
Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste
them with vexatious cares.[729-1]
_Of the Training of Children._