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cifions of the ancient Moralifts, are grown into Proverbs in most of the living Languages in this part of the World. And that more of them may become (o in ours, is the Defign of publifbing this Collection.

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The Italians, Spaniards, and French, as well as we of thefe Nations, have enriched their ftore with many of the most confiderable Sayings and Obfervations of the Greeks and Romans; which are here inferted for their fakes chiefly who are Strangers to thofe lear ned Tongues.

For they who are acquainted with Euripides, Sophocles, and thofe valuable Fragments of Menander, and the other Greek Dramatick Poets and Sages, happily preferv'd to us by Stobæus, and Jome of the more ancient Chriftian Writers, will easily trace up

many

many of the very best and wifest of these Proverbs to thofe great Originals.

I mention this out of a juft Indig-' nation, and to the eternal Shame of our wretched Poetafters, the modern Scrib lers to the English Stage; who, either to get Bread by Jo vile and mean a Trade, or to gain the Applause of the empty and gay Things, and loofe Debauchees of a degenerate Age, and with all to Patronize their own lewd and fcandalous Lives, have taken as much pains to varnish and set off Profaneness, and all kinds of brutish Senfuality and Wickedness, and to ridicule true Wif dom and Virtue, and even common Honefty, as thofe much wifer and better Men, the Heathen Poets, did to dif credit Vice and Folly, and to raife Sobriety, Juftice, Humanity, and even Piety, to that Efteem and true Value with all Men, which they ever had, and will A 4

ever

ever have with the most discerning and unbyaffed Judges, even Pagans as well as Chriftians.

pho alla molinom. I Thefe Jacula Prudentum, thefe Goads or Nails of the Wife, may probably make a deeper Impreffion, and stick fafter in fome Mens minds than large Difcourfes and accurate and clofe Reafonings:

Some fingle Proverb may, either by its own Weight and clear Evidence of Truth, or by its agreeable Turn of Expreffion, fo luckily hit fome Perfons in fome Circumftances, and may give them fuch a feafonable Hint, as may be worth twenty times more to them upon that one Occafion, than the whole Book coft them.

For Example.

Fly the Pleasure that will bite to

morrow.

Tis

'Tis better to please a Fool than to > anger him.

Lay your Hand often upon your own Heart, and you will not speak ill of others.

Never Speak, or Do that thing which Anger prompts you to.

Giving much to the Poor increaseth our store. c.

Some one of thefe, I fay, or the like, may come fo patly into that Man's Head which is furnished with fuch Materials, as to prevent his doing fome Ill or Folly. which he would afterwards repent of; or to put him upon what he might not otherwife have thought to do at that time, or in that manner.

Some plain, irrefiftible, and useful Truths, are inferted here and there among

mong the reft, that if they are not yet common enough to pass for Proverbs, or ftated Maxims and Rules of Life, they may be fo for the future to all who will give themselves the leifure duly to confider, and then to apply them to their own use.

If there needs any Apology, it is for fome few, which are either Matters of Fact and common Obfervation, or which Shew fomewhat of the Genius of those Nations whence they at first came. And thefe, as Sea marks, may ferve to warn us what is to be avoided, as well as difapproved, by all who have a true taste and fenfe of their Duty and Intereft. Some too of the French Proverbs are in fuch an old Drefs, as that they will Scarce be owned by their Country men z the Reafon of which is, that they were copied from Books printed before the modern Refinements of that Tongue, which

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