Trust not the praise of a friend, nor the contempt of an enemy.-Italian. Two blacks make no white.--Scotch. Two eyes are better than one.---French. Two of a trade seldom agree. Two cats and a mouse, two wives in one house, two dogs and a bone, never agree in one. Two things a man should never be angry at;-what he can help, and what he cannot help. U. V. Under my cloak I'll kill the king.-Spanish. Meaning that, as a man's thoughts cannot be controlled, he may kill the king in imagination. Venture a small fish to catch a great one. W. Water run by, will not turn a mill.-Spanish. Wanton kittens may make sober old cats. We must live by the quick, not by the dead. We shall be all bald a hundred years hence.-Spanish. Aye, in less time than that. Really, it is melancholy to reflect on the quick vicissitudes in sublunary affairs. Only think of the strange mutations in this busy metropolis, in half a century or less. Where will then be the bright eyes and fair countenances that now fill our streets with life and gaiety! What will have become of the big wigs and fur gowns the counsellors and judges-the orators of St. Stephen's-the turtle-eating aldermen, the prating common councilmen, and the Cent-per-cents of Job-alley. The stars of Almack's, and the blossoms of St. Giles's, will have alike faded, or set in endless night. They will all have gone out "like a snuff," and have been quietly put to bed with "a shovel or a spade," and a new generation arisen, just as vain and bustling as their predecessors. It makes one's heart ache to think on it, yet so it is,-- "Time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, We are all Adam's children, but silk makes the difference. 'Weak men and cowards are commonly wily. We think lawyers to be wise men, and they know us to be fools. 1 We are never so happy or unfortunate as we think ourselves. We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappoint ed. Well lathered is half shaven. Weigh right, if you sell dear. Welcome death, quoth the rat, when the trap fell down. Was it not for hope the heart would break.-Scotch. Well ought a poem to be made at first, since it hath many á spoiler.-Gaelic. Lack-a-day! Had the Gael their critics too,---their Edinburgh and Quarterly reviewers, and all the small fry of spoilers ?" What is the use of patience if we cannot find it when we want it? What the eye sees need not be guessed at. What good can it do an ass to be called a lion? What a dust I have raised, quoth the fly on the wheel. What is gotten over the devil's back is spent under his belly. What a man desires he easily believes. What! keep a dog and bark myself. What is bought is cheaper than a gift. What your glass tells you, will not be told by counsel. What you do when you are drunk, you must pay for when you are dry.--Scotch. What the Gauntlets gets the gorget consumes.-French. A military proverb, ascribed to the celebrated Bayard; implying that the pomp and waste of a soldier's life consume all the sword can procure, either in pay or plunder. What pretty things men will make for money, quoth the old woman when she saw a monkey. What is done cannot be undone.-French. What enjoyment! to have little to eat and keep a servant. Spanish. What's none of my profit shall be none of my peril.— Scotch. What may be done at any time will be done at no time. Scotch. What I cannot do by might I'll do by slight.—Scotch, Lat.Si leoninæ pellis non satis sit, addenda vulpina. What is done in the night appears in the day.-Italian. When the cat is away the mice will play. Ital.---Quando la gatta non in casa, i sorici ballano. When candles are out all cats are gray. Spanish.---Le noche todos los gatos son pardos. Which is the same as the English in both nations; and shows either, how universal the same proverb is diffused, or how in different countries the same fact has given rise to the same observation. When the wine is in, the wit is out. When the shoulder of mutton is going it is good to take a slice. When rogues fall out, honest men come by their own. The Italians say, "Every ditch is full of your after-wits," When every hand fleeceth, the sheep go naked. When you are all agreed upon the time, quoth the Vicar, I'll make it rain. When two friends have a common purse, one sings and the other weeps. When the sun shines, nobody minds him ; but when he is eclipsed, all consider him. When good cheer is lacking, our friends will be packing. When a friend asketh, there is no to-morrow.-Spanish. When the fox preaches, beware of your geese. When an ass is among monkeys they all make faces at him.-Spanish. When it pleases not God, the saint can do little.--Spanish. -Italian. When every one takes care of himself, care is taken of all. French.-Quand chacun se mele de son metier, les vaches sont bien gardees. "Self-love and social are the same."-POPE. A truth which is daily becoming more apparent, as may be seen by the recent removal of restrictions of commercial freedom, and suffering public prosperity to rest on the basis of individual interest. The same liberal policy will doubtless ere long be extended to the freedom of intellect and opinions. 6 When all men say you are an ass it is time bray. When one will not, two can not quarrel.-Spanish. When the curate licks the knife, it must be bad for the clerk.-Spanish. When a peasant is on horseback, he knows neither God nor any one.-Spanish. When the heart is full of lust the mouth is full of lies. When you have attained power and wealth, beware of insolence, pride and oppression. When the bow is too much bent it breaks.-Italian. When thy neighbour's house is on fire look to thine own. Where nothing's to be had, the king must lose his rights. Where love fails, we spy all faults. Where nothing is, a little doth ease. Where the hedge is lowest, men commonly leap over. Where the carcass is, there the ravens will collect together.-Gaelic. Where a man is not known when he speaks, he is not believed.-Italian. Where men are well used they'll frequent there. While there's life there's hope. While the grass grows the steed starves.-Italian. Who so deaf as they that will not hear. Who goes to the wars eats ill, drinks worse, and sleeps on the ground.-Italian. Who has land, has war. French. Qui terre a, guerre a. Who wishes to burn the house of his neighbour, ought to think of his own.-Italian. Who looks not before finds himself behind. It is a horrid sin to rob a scholar; a thousand times worse than sacrilege. They have seldom much to be robbed of, and to take from them the little they have is cruelty beyond endurance, Besides, literary men are strictly the servants of the public, who live by contributing to its amusement and instruction. Hence the proverb; for he who robs e scholar of his money, or the implements of his trade" robs the public," by depriving it of the means by which it may be accommodated. Who hunts two hares, leaves one and loses the other.-Ital. Who can help sickness? quoth the drunken wife, when she fell into the gutter. With cost, good pottage may be made out of the leg of a joint stool. Wishes never can fill a sack. Who shall hang the bell about the cat's neck? Ital. --Appicior chi vuol' il sonaglio alla gatta. This proverb is used in most European countries, and founded on the fable of the mice, who hold a consultation on the best means to be apprised of the cat's coming; when it was determined to hang a bell about her neck. But the next question was who would do it? and hence the proverb. Kelly relates, that the nobility of Scotland entered into conspiracy against one Spence, the favourite of Janies III. It was proposed to go in a body to Stirling, to take Spence and hang him, and then to offer their service to the King as his natural counsellors. The Lord Gray says, It is well said, but who will bell the cat?" The Earl of Angus answerd," I will bell the cat ;" which he effected and was ever afterwards called "Archibald Bell Cat Who shall keep the keepers? Who hath aching teeth hath ill tenants. Who loses his due gets no thanks. Who has not a good tongue ought to have good hands. Who dangles after the great is the last at table, and the first at blows.-Ital. Who are you for? I am for him whom I get most by. Wit once bought is worth twice taught. With Latin, a horse, and money, thou wilt pass through the world. Spanish. Let us have the two last and we will be content to jog on com- |