Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-04-23
Familiar Quotations.

The old phrase, &c There's many a
slip 'twixt the cup and the lip" is a
literal translation Of an old Greek hex
ameter line, and when we talk of smil-
ing through tears we are quoting Ho-
mer. The happy expression, "Nu5ton,
9uod totjqitit nom ornag5f," is the
! phrase employed by Dr Johnston in
/ his epitaph on Goldsmith to express
the genius of his friend. The line so
often attributed to SHAKESPEARE, was
written by Garrick in the occasional
prologue spoken by him On leaving the
stage. Owing Feithan, the author Of
the < Resolve, is one Of those unfor-
tunate men who have written good and
pithy things while others have usurped
the credit Of them; such, for instance,
as "With0ut certain modicum of
chaf the horse IS apt to bolt his oats,'
which has been SO dexterously applied.
NacauIay has the reputation of many a
brilliant epigram, for which he was in
debted far more to his gigantic memory
than to his originality.
The oft-quoted image Of the traveller
from New Zealand taking his stand on
a broken arch Of London Bridge to
sketch the ruins of St. Paul's, is bor-
rowed from Horace Walpol,, THE I'm
itation of Christ" Herbert '' Jacula
Prudentium, and Franklin's works
are the great storehouses of many prov
erbs and quotations. From the first
We have & Man proposes but God dis
poses. "Of two evils, the less is al
ways to be chosen" g Early to bed
and early to rise makes a man healthy,
wealthy aud wise" is from Franklin
so also is God helps them who help
themselves" ;" ''He that goes a borrow
ing goes a Borrowings" Continual
dropping wears away stones, F." though
the germ Of this, by the way, is to be
found in Lucretids and Ovid. Rabelas
has given US many popular phrases,
such as s'He thought the moon was
made Of green cheese )" by robbing
Peter he paid Paul )" ''The devil was
sick, the devil monk would be >; the
devil was well, the devil monk was
he" The phrase, "War even to the
knife" was the answer Of PalaFox. the
Governor of Saragossa, when he was
summoned to surrender by the French,
who were besieging the city, in 1908.
One Of the sources from which many
of our popular quotations have flowed
in Lord Roscommon' 'sEssay on Trans
lated Verse; )" for example, the couplet
so confidently attributed to Pope, "llil-
modest words admit of no defence, for
want of decency is want Of sense !"
and, "Choose an author as you choose
friend"
Lord Lytton somewhere says that
Horace has supplied, after Sha kespeare.
the greatest number Of quotations. 1t
is true he is the.author who rises most
readily to the lips Of the scholar, and
by his marvellous powers OF uniting
happy condensation with strong COM
mon sense, affords the readieSt medium
of expressing the ordinary incidents OF
| life in the tersest language; but Gu
riously enough there are very few
standard quotations to be eulled from
his works. Terence aud Plautus have
furnished us with far greater number
though we owe a still larger debt Of
gratitude to Virgil and Ovid. In
Greek literature, the great storehouses
of quotation are undoubtedly the frag-
ments Of the tragic and comic poets,
particularly Mehander. whose. sayings
have been filtered through a thousand
channels, and form no inconsiderable
part of the sum Of the familiar quo
tations most in Yogue.-London
Globe.