EI FIRST PART. ΕΙ 1. A GOOD proverb is never out of season. A word once uttered can never be recalled. A wise man may appear like a fool in the company of a fool. A goose-quill is more dangerous than a lion's claw. A thousand probabilities will not make one truth. A great man will neither trample on a worm, nor cringe before a king. A jest is no argument, and loud laughter no demonstration. A crown will not cure the headache, nor a golden slipper the gout. Avoid a slander, as you would a scorpion. Books alone can never teach soul of wit. By the approval By learning to obey, you will street of " By-and-by". one 2. A wager is a fool's argument. A stumble may prevent a fall. A lie begets a lie, till they come to generations. A fault once denied is twice committed. A willing mind makes a light foot. A fool's bolt is soon shot. Be not misled by evil examples; never think, "others do it, too." "Bear and forbear" is good philosophy. Better to live well than long. Better to be untaught than to be ill-taught. the use of books. Brevity is the of evil, you become guilty of it. know how to command. By the arrives at the house of "Never." 3. Begin and end with God. Beauty is the flower, but virtue is the fruit, of life. By entertaining good thoughts, you will keep out evil ones. Between virtue and vice is no middle path. By doing nothing, we learn to do ill. Combat vice in its first attack, and you will come off conqueror. Cunning and treachery often proceed from want of capacity. Cater frugally for the body, if you would feed the mind sumptuously. Choleric men sin in haste and repent at leisure. Common fame is often a common liar. Confine your tongue, lest it confine you. 4. Constant occupation prevents temptation. Credit lost is like a broken looking-glass. Charity should begin at home, but not end there. Covetous men are bad sleepers. Consider each day your last. Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost. Deem every day of your life a leaf in your history. Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. Defile not thy mouth with impure words. Despise none; despair of none. Diet cures more than the doctor. Dissembled holiness is double iniquity. Drunkenness is an egg from which all vices may be hatched. Do 5. Deliver your words not by number, but by weight. nothing you would wish to conceal. Death has nothing terrible PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS. 65 in it but what life has made so. Each day is a new life: regard it, therefore, as an epit ́ō-me11 of the whole. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Entertain no thoughts which you would blush at in words. Economy is itself a great income. Fortune often makes a feast, and then takes away the appetite. Few, Force 6. Fear not death so much as an evil course of life. Fling him into the Nile, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth. Fortune can take nothing from us but what she gave. that have any merit of their own, envy that of others. without forecast is little worth. Gaming finds a man a dupe, and leaves him a knave. Gluttony kills more than the sword. Heaven helps him who helps himself. He is the best gentleman who is the son of his own deserts.83 He who will not be ruled by the rudder I must be ruled by the rock. His is a happy memory which forgets nothing so soon as his injuries. shows his passion tells his enemy where to hit him. ΕΙ He that He is an 7. He is a wise man who is willing to receive instructions from all men. He is a mighty man who subdueth his evil inclinations. He is a rich man who is delighted with his lot.He keeps his road well who gets rid of bad company. ill boy that goes, like a top, no longer than he is whipped. He that "will consider of it" takes time to deny you handsomely. Happy he who happy thinks. He who has good health is young, and he is rich who owes nothing. He that would know what shall be, must consider what has been. Hungry men call the cook lazy. He who sows brambles must not go barefoot. 8. If the counsel be good, no matter who gave it. Industry is Fortune's right hand, and Frugality her left. If you wish a thing done, go; if not, send. If you would enjoy the fruit, pluck not the blossom. It is easy to go afoot when one leads one's horse by the bridle. In a country of blind people the one-eyed is king. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. If God be with us, who can be against us? Keep good company, and be one of the number. Know thyself. Knowledge is the treasure of the mind, and discretion the key to it. Levity in manner leads to laxity in principles. SECOND PART. 1. LEARNING is wealth to the poor, and an ornament to the rich. Let pleasures be ever so innocent, the excess is criminal. Light griefs are loquacious. Less of your courtesy, and more of your coin. Let not the tongue forerun the thought. Lying rides on debt's back. Much coin, much care; much meat, much malady. Men may be pleased with a jester, but they never esteem him. Many soldiers are brave at table, who are cowards in the field. None but the contemptible are apprehensive of contempt. Never speak to deceive, nor listen to betray. Never despair, Never open the door to a little vice, lest a great one should enter too. 2. Out of debt, out of danger. Peace and Honor are the sheaves of Virtue's harvest. Purchase the next world with this; so shalt thou win both. Perspicuity is the garment which good thoughts should wear. Praise a fair day at night. Pride will have a fall. Do not put your finger in the fire, and say it was your fortune. Punishment is lame, but it comes. Ponder again and again on the divine law; for all things are contained therein. Prayer should be the key of the day, and the lock of the night. Rule the appetite, and temper the tongue. Scholarship, without good breeding, is but tiresome pedantry. Say not, "When I have leisure I will study," lest thou shouldst not have leisure. Show method in thy study, if thou wilt acquire true wisdom. of it. 3. To profane one's lips with unchaste expressions, is like bringing swine into the sanctuary. The loquacity of fools is a lecture to the wise. The offender never pardons. The shortest answer is doing the thing. The sting of a reproach is the truth To err is human; to forgive, divine. The best throw of the dice is to throw them away. There are those who despise pride with a greater pride. The perfection of art is to conceal art. The crime, not the scaffold, makes the shame. The hog never looks up to him that thrashes down the acorns. There is no worse robber than a bad book. The sweetest wine makes the sharpest vinegar. The raven EI cried to the crow, 66 Avaunt, blackamoor!" The less wit a man has, the less he knows he wants it. The feet of retribution EI are shod with wool. The best way to see divine light is to put out thine own candle. 4. Understanding without wealth is like feet without shoes; wealth without understanding is like shoes without feet. Use soft words and hard arguments.. Virtue that parleys I is near a surrender. Vows made in storms are too often forgotten in calms. When men speak ill of you, live so that nobody will believe them. Want of punctuality is a species of falschood. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the mind. Wherever there is flattery, there is sure to be a fool. Wit is folly unless a wise man has the keeping of it. When the wine is in, the wit is out. 5. What greater torment than the consciousness of having known the will of our Creator and yet disobeyed it! Wine is a THE LIGHT-HOUSE. 67 turncoat: first a friend, and last an enemy. "Welcome death," quoth the rat, when the trap snapped. When good cheer is lacking," false friends will be packing. Wisdom and virtue go hand in hand. Walk in the way of uprightness, and shun the way of darkness. When a man's coats is threadbare, it is easy to pick a hole in it. Winter discovers what summer conceals. it not for hope, the heart would break. Who thinks to deceive God, has already deceived himself. Were 98 6. A bad workman quarrels with his tools. A creaking door hangs long on its hinges. A fault confessed is half redressed. An evil lesson is soon learned. Be slow to promise, and quick to perform. Don't measure other people's corn by your bushel. Catch the bear before you sell his skin. First deserve, and then desire. He lacks most that longs most. He liveth long who liveth well. He that reckons without his host must reckon again. In a calm sea every man is a pilot. Live not to eat, but eat to live. Many go out for wool and come home shōrn. The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman. Man proposes, God disposes. THE scene was more beautiful far to my eye The murmur rose soft as I silently gazed From the dim distant hill, till the light-house fire blazed No longer the joy of the sailor-boy's breast One moment I looked from the hill's gentle slope, And I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope, The time is long past, and the scene is afar, Will memory sometimes rekindle the star In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies, O, then may the seraph of mercy arise, ANON. * 1. I REMEMBER once seeing, when a lad at school, a fight between two bulls. Although I could not have been more than eight years of age at the time, I shall never forget the spectacle. It happened in this wise.EI Close by the school-house · a very unpretending edifice it was ran a deep and rapid river. Across it had been thrown a high wooden bridge, the hand-railing of which, time and the winds and the weather had entirely destroyed. The land on opposite sides of the stream was owned by different persons, and farmed by them respectively. bright summer day, I remember it as it were yesterday, the hour of noon had arrived, and a frolicsome, fun-seeking troop of school-boys were let loose for an hour's recreation. One 2. All at once, the bellowing and roaring of two bulls, that had broken out of their enclosures on each side of the river, attracted our attention. The animals were not yet in sight of each other, but were approaching along the highway at a rate of speed which would cause them to meet near the centre of the high bridge which I have described, and beneath which, at some thirty feet, ran the river between steep banks. The more daring of us gathered near the bridge, lining it, to see the anticipated fight. We were not disappointed. Nearer and nearer to each other approached the proud, pawing combatants.90 Bashan never produced two brutes of fiercer aspect. They lashed their sides with their tails; they tore the ground with their feet. Occasionally they knelt down, trying to gore the earth with their horns. And as yet they were concealed, each from the other, by the ascent towards the bridge at either end. ΕΙ 3. Presently, as they simultaneously ascended the respective abutments, they came full in sight of each other. The roar was mutual, and actually tremendous. Every urchin of us sprang into the fields and ran. Finding, however, that we were not pursued, we as hastily retraced our steps. There they were, the ferocious duellists, quite as sensibly employed as some of their human imitators! Front to front, their horns locked, every muscle strained, they were fighting as only bulls can fight. It seemed an even match. Now 138 one would press back his opponent a few paces, and presently you would hear quick, sharp, short steps, and his adversary would be pressed back in return. struggling was hard, was long, was savage. For a while neither obtained an advantage. The Bear in mind that the dash is sometimes used by modern writers in place of the marks of parenthesis. See ¶¶ 140, 165, Part I. |