The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-04-16
FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS.
Disputed Questions Of Authorship Sci


Many familiar quotations are, in the
| majority of cases, ascribed to false
sources, and We find the happy thoughts
of gifted authors slipping readily from
our tongue, but have only confused
| idea, If any, of whose wit we are Dor
rowing. How many of the eager ques-
TONERS who have been met with, = Ask
me no questions and II tell you no lies, :
know that the tantalizing response Is
a direct quotation from Goldsmith ? To
him we are also indebted for 'sThese
little things are great TO little men.
And in Goldsmith's Z Hermit" We find
6 Man wants but little here below, nor
wants that little long," but earlier than
that Doctor Young has said in his
g Night Thoughts - g Man wants but
little, nor that little longs" "A All thai
glistens is not gold," is from Shaks-
peare.
A question arose at a small party as
to the origin of line familiar to nearly
every one present, What shadows we
are, what shadows VIC pursue I" and af-
ter great diversity of opinion and con-
siderable search, ft was found that not
oSe of the company had given the true
source. 1t is from speech of Edmund
Burke, delivered at Bristol on declining
the poll In 1850.
Pope is commonly and unjustly cred
tied with the authorship of the popu-
lar quotation Immodest words ad-
NIT of no defence, for want of decency
is want of sense" It may be found a
Lord Roscommons s essay On IS Translni
ted Verbs, " which is also the source of
Choose an author as you choose a
friend"
Daniel Defoe is quoted as the author
of the proverb, " God no sooner builds
a church than the devil puts up a chap
Ell. Defoe wrote poem, one verse of
which was as follows
Whenever God erects house Of prayer,
The devil is sure to build chapel there
And twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation
But in whiting this, Defoe only Eersi-
fed a well-known proverb of his day.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melan-
choly," says: So Where God hath tenn
pie the devil will have chapel, and
Herbert, in his "Jacula Prudentum,
expresses the same idea.
Though the mills of God grind
slowly, yet they grind exceeding small,
may be found among LongfelloW's po-
etical aphorisms, and is a translation
from Frederick Won Logan, writer OF
the seventeeth century. From Pope's
rich stories of thought we gather many
popular maxims. " Pleased with rat
tie, tickled with straw - Whatever
is, is right )" +" Order is Heavens first
law;" ''Honor and shame fromno condi-
ton rise :" g An honest mans the nc
blest work of God, may all be found
in POpe's " Essay on Man" In his
Essay on Criticism :" ga little learn
ing is a dangerous thing" "To err is
human, to forgive divine ;" ''Fools rush
In where angels fear to tread 5" Your
ease in writing comes from art, not
chance-as those move easiest who have
learned to dance" The well-known
line, "Well should you practice who
so well can preach" occurs in his
''Wife of Bath" There is an Italian
proverb ed in the extravaganza of
fattery expressive of this idea:
9 When nature made thee she broke the
mould"
Byron uses it in the closing lines of
his melody on the death Of Sheridan
8 Signing that nature formed but one such
man,
And broke the die in moulding Sheridan"
The source of the common saying,
Consistency, thou arta jewel, has puz-
zled many a scholar, and whether or not
the following authority may be relied
upon as the starting point, or as only
using a borrowed idea, I cannot
assert. In a ballad entitled, 50 Jolly
Robyn Roughhead, F" published in 1854,
in a little volume of English and
Scotch ballads, the poet bewaiIs the
extravaganza in dress, which he consid
ers the grand enormity of his day, and
makes Robyn address his wife as fol-
lows
'Tush tush my lassie such thoughts re-
signe,
Comparisons are cruel,
Fine dresses suit to frames as fine,
COnsistencie's q jewel J"
eve live IN deeds, not years"
90 Life is bat a means unto an end,
and, "An-up-hill work when we would
do, all down-hill when we suffer, are
quotations from Bailey's Festus.'
For some time there was a ccnsidera-
BILE perplexity as to the origin of the
familiar line, "Though lost to sight,
to memory dear" but it has been final
ly settled that it originated with Ruth
ven Jenkyns, and was first published in
the Greenwich Magazine for mariners
in I701.
''Though thick and thin," None
but the brave deserve the fair" and
" Death and deaths half-brother,
bi66D, are lIOm OENOeus
"'Tis distance lends enchaztment to
the view" and "Like angels visits,
few and far bet tReen," are from Camp
BELLS " Pleasures of Hope"
In a collection of old songs, pub
lished in the sixteenth century, we find,
" The darkest hour is Just before the
dawn" To those great store houses of
wise sayings, Shakspeare's works, the
following owe their origin: Double,
double toll and trouble" "Brevity is
the soul of wit" "CuTses not loud,
but Deep" "Make assurance doubly
sure, ;" eve shall not look upon his
like again" and 50 many others that
we find it dangerous, with our limited
space, to even make a commencement.
But while we owe a large debt of
gratitude to Shakespeare, he usurps the
credit of many good things which 9TH
ers have written the line, " A fellow
feeling makes one wondrous kind" be-
ing for instance. This was written by
Garrick, in the occasional prologue
spoken by him on leaving the stage.
Scripture is often misquoted as Shaks-
peare, and Utce versa, probably because
Shakespeare was indebted to scripture
for many of his illustrations, and IN
reading his works we are frequently re-
minded of the bible, not so much by
decided imitation of style as by an ele-
vation of thought and simplicity of
speech not found elsewhere.
"The good die first, and they whose
hearts are dry as summer dust burn TO
the socket" is from Wordsworth's
" Excursion. s. Blessings brighten as
they take flight, from YouDg's 81 Night
Thoughts. ''God made the country,
man made the town." from Cowper's
g Task, hich is also the source Of
s' The cup that cheers but not inebri-
a5es," end the oft-quoted line, Z" Not
much the worse for wear"
Congrieve, il his play of The Old
Bachelor gives " Married IN haste, we
may repent at leisure ;" aud % Music
hath charms to sooth q savage breast,
is by the same author, and occurs in
his " Morning Bride.
ssWhere ignorance is bliss, tbs folly
to be wise, is In Gray's code on Eton
college, /" 80 Christmas comes but once a
year." and eft Is an III wind that blows
nobody any good. were written By
Thomas Tusser in 1880 t tStrsws show