A good winter brings a good summer.

Wine is the master's, but the goodness is the drawer's.
Wine in the bottle doth not quench the thirst. Ital.
Wine is a turncoat; first a friend, then an enemy.
Wine that costs nothing is digested ere it be drunk.
You cannot know wine by the barrel.
Wine wears no breeches.-Fr. i. e.

Shews what a man is.

You cannot drive a windmill with a pair of bellows.

You may be a wise man though you cannot make a watch.
Wise men care not for what they cannot have.

A wise man changes his mind; a fool never.-Span. Il sabio muda consejo, il necio, no.

It is better to sit with a wise man in prison, than with a fool in paradise. Russ.

None is so wise but the fool overtakes him.

Better to have than to wish.

Better it be done than wish it had been done.

If

you wish a thing done, go: if not, send.

It is wit to pick a lock, and steal a horse, but wisdom to let

them alone.

You have a little wit, and it doth you good sometimes.

He had enough to keep the wolf from the door. i. e. To satisfy his hunger, latrantem stomachum.

Wolves lose their teeth, but not their memory.

Who hath a wolf for his mate, needs a dog for his man. Ital. Who keeps company with a wolf, will learn to howl. Ital. Chi prattica con lupi impara à hurlar.

Women, priests, and poultry never have enough.

preti & polli non son mar satolli.

Donne,

Women are wise on a sudden, but fools upon premeditation. Ital.

Women and hers through too much gadding are lost. Ital.

To woo is a pleasure in young men, a fault in old.

Green wood makes a hot fire.

Wood half burnt is easily kindled.

Better give the wool than the sheep.

lana che la pecora.

Many words will not fill a bushel.

Ital. Meglio è dar la

Words and feathers are tost by the wind.-Span. Palabres y

plumas el viento las lleva.

Good words without deeds are rushes and reeds.

Words spoken in an evening, the wind carrieth away. Ital. In the heat of conviviality, men are apt to utter that which should be little regarded.

One ill word asketh another.

They must hunger in frost, that will not work in heat.
What is a workman without his tools?

There needs a long time to know the world's pulse.
This world is nothing except it tend to another.

A green wound is soon healed.

A wound is not cured by the unbending of the bow.-Ital. To express sorrow when one has injured another, is not suffi cient satisfaction.

Wranglers never want words.

Y.

THE more thy years, the nearer thy grave.
Years know more than books.

Youth will have its swing.

Youth and white paper take any impression.

A young man idle, an old man needy. Ital.

25

PROVERBS AND PROVERBIAL OBSERVATIONS BELONGING TO HEALTH, DIET, AND PHYSIC.

AN ague in the spring is physic for a king.

That is, if it comes off well: for an ague is nothing but a strong fermentation of the blood. Now, as in the fermentation of other liquors, there is, for the most part, a separation made of that which is heterogeneous and unsociable, whereby the liquor becomes more pure and defecate, so is it also with the blood, which, by fermentation, (easily excited at this time by the return of the sun,) doth purge itself, and cast off those impure heterogeneous particles which it had contracted in the winter time: and that these may be carried away, after every particular fermentation or paroxysm, and not again taken up by the blood, it is necessary, or at least very useful, to sweat in bed after every fit; and an ague-fit is not thought to go off kindly, unless it ends in a sweat. Moreover, at the end of the disease, it is convenient to purge the body, to carry away those more gross and feculent parts which have been separated by the several fermentations, and could not so easily be voided by sweat; or that still remain in the blood, though not sufficient to cause a paroxysm. And that all persons, especially those of years, may be lessoned that they neglect not to purge their bodies after the ague, I shall add a very material and useful observation of Doctor Sydenham's: Sublato morbo (saith he, speaking of autumnal Fevers) æger sedulo purgandus est; incredibile enim dictu quanta morborum vis ex purgationis defectu post febres Autumnales subnascatur. Miror autem hoc a medicis minus caveri, minùs etiam admoneri. Quandocunque enim morborum alterutrum (Febrem tertianam aut quartanam) pauiò provectioris ætatis hominibus accidisse vidi, atque purgationem etiam omissam; certo prædicere potui periculosum aliquem morbum eosdem postea adoriturum, de quo tamen illi nondum somniaverant, quasi perfectè jam sanati.

Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot.
A bit in the morning is better than nothing all day.
Or, than a thump on the back with a stone.

You eat and eat, but you do not drink to fill you.

That much drinking takes off the edge of the appetite, we see by experience in great drinkers, who for the most part do (as we say) but pingle at their meat, and eat little. Hippocrates observed, that Auòv Júpnis A; A good hearty draught takes away hunger after long fasting sooner by far than eating would do. The reason whereof I conceive is be cause that acid humour, which, by vellicating the membranes of the stomach, causes a sense of hunger, is by copious ingestion of drink very much diluted, and its acidity taken off. The Italians say, Dio ti guarda da mangiatore che non beve.

An apple, an egg, and a nut, you may eat after a slut. Poma, ova atque nuces, si det tibi sordida, gustes.

Children and chickens must be always picking.

That is, they must eat often, but little at a time. Often, because the body growing, requires much addition of food; little at a time, for fear of oppressing and extinguishing the natural heat. A little oil nourishes the flame; but a great deal poured on at once, may drown and quench it. A man may carry that by little and little, which, if laid on his back at once, he would sink under. Hence old men, who, in this respect also, I mean by reason of the decay of their spirits and natural heat, do again become children, are advised by physicians to eat often, but little at once.

Old young, and old long.

Divieni tosto vecchio se vuoi vivere lungamente vecchio.-Ital. Maturè fias senex si diu senex esse velis. This is alleged as a proverb by Cicero in his book de Senectute. For as the body is preserved in health by moderate abour or exercise, so by violent and immoderate exertion it is impaired and worn out. And as a great excess of any quality, or external violence, doth suddenly destroy the body, so a lesser excess doth weaken and partially destroy it, by rendering it less lasting.

They who would be young when they are old, must be old when they are young. The Spaniards say, Si quieres vivir sano, hazte viejo temprano. If thou wilt be healthful, make thyself old betimes.

When the fern is as high as a spoon,

You may sleep an hour at noon.

The custom of sleeping after dinner in the summer time, is general in Italy, and other hot countries, so that from one to three or four of the clock in the afternoon, you scarce see any one stirring about the streets of their cities. The Schola Salernitana condemns this practice. Sit brevis aut nullus tibi somnus meridianus: Febris, pigrities, capitis dolor atque Catarrhus. Hæc tibi proveniunt ex somno meridiano. But it may be this advice was intended for us English (to whose King this book was dedicated) rather than the Italians, or other inhabitants of hot countries, who in the summer would have enough to do to keep themselves awake after dinner. The best way for us in colder climates is to abstain; but if we must needs sleep, (as the Italian physicians advise,) either to take a nod sitting in a chair, or, if we lie down, strip off our clothes as at night, and go into bed, as the present duke of Tuscany himself practises, and advises his subjects to do, but by no means lie down upon a bed in our clothes.

When the fern is as high as a ladle,

You may sleep as long as you are able. When fern begins to look red,

Then milk is good with brown bread.

It is observed by good housewives, that milk is thicker in the Autumn than in the Summer, notwithstanding the grass must be more hearty, the juice of it being better concocted by the heat of the sun in Summer time. I conceive the reason to be, because the cattle drink water abundantly by reason of their heat in Summer, which doth much dilute their milk.

Every man is either a fool or a physician after thirty years

of age.

After dinner sit a while, after supper walk a mile.

Post epulas stabis vel passus mille meabis. I know no reason for the difference, unless one eats a greater dinner than supper. For when the stomach is full, it is not good to exercise immediately, but to sit still a while though I do not allow the reason usually given, viz. because exercise draws the heat outward to the exterior parts, and so leaving the stomach and bowels cold, hinders concoction: for I believe that, as well the stomach as the exterior parts are hottest after exercise: and that those who exercise most, concoct most, and require most meat. So that exercise immediately after meat is hurtful rather, upon account of precipitating concoction, or turning the meat out of the stomach too soon. As for the reason they give for standing or walking after meals, viz. because the meat by that means is depressed to the bottom of the stomach, where the natural heat is most vigorous, it is very frivolous, both because the stomach is a wide vessel, and so the bottom of it cannot be empty, but what falls into it must needs fall down to the bottom; and because most certainly the stomach concocts worst when it is in a pendulous posture, as it is while we are standing. Hence, as the Lord Verulam truly observes, galley slaves, and such as exercise sitting, though they fare meanly, and work hard, yet are commonly fat and fleshy; whereupon also he commends those works of exercises which a man may perform sitting, as sawing with a hand-saw, and the like. Some turn this saying into a droll; thus,

After dinner sleep a while, after supper go to bed.

An old physician, a young lawyer.

An old physician, because of his experience; a young lawyer, because he having but little practice, will have leisure enough to attend to your business; and desiring thereby to recommend himself, and get more, will be very diligent in it. The Italians say, An old physician, a young barber.

A good surgeon must have an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and a lady's hand.

Good kail is half a meal.

Kail, i. e. pottage of any kind; though properly kail be pottage made of colworts, which the Scots call kail, and of which usually they make their broth.

If

you would live ever, you must wash milk from

your liver.

Vin sur laict c'est souhait, laict sur vin c'est venin.-Fr. This is an idle old saw, for which I can see no reason, but rather for the contrary. Butter is gold in the morning, silver at noon, lead at night. He that would live for aye, must eat sage in May.

That sage was by our ancestors esteemed a very wholesome herb, and much conducing to longevity, appears by that verse in the Schola Salernitana: Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto?

After cheese comes nothing.

An egg, and to bed.