_"Putting your foot into it"_ (Vol. viii., p. 77.).--W. W. is certainly
"Will o' the Wisp" himself. We must not allow him to lead us into Asia,
hunting for the origin of a saying which is nothing more than a coarse
allusion to an accident that happens day after day to every heedless or
benighted pedestrian in England; but if a foreign origin _must_ be found
for this saying, let us travel to Greece rather than to Hindostan, and we
shall see in the writings of Æschylus:
"Ἐλαφρὸν, ὅστις πημάτων ἔξω πόδα
Ἔχει, παραινεῖν νουθετεῖν τε τὸν κακῶς
Πράσσοντ'." κ.τ.λ.--_Prom. Vinc._ 271.