The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-04-11
FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS.
Disputed Questions of Authorship Set


HOO4
Disputed Questions of Authorship Set.
tied.
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 a confused
idea, if any, of whose wit we are bor-
rowing HoSmany of the eager ques-
TONERS who have been met with, ASK
me no questions and Ill tell you no lies, -
know that the tantalizing response is
a direct quotation from Goldsmith To
him we are also INDEBTED for "These
little things are great to little men. "
And in Goldsmiths Hermit we find
"Man wants but little here below, nor
wants that little long" but earlier than
that Doctor Young has said in his
"Night Thoughts" " Man wants but
little, nor that little long," All that
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 we pursue y and af.
ter great diversity of opinion and con-
| siderable search. il was found that not
one of the company had given the true
source. It 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 adj
NIT of no defence, for want of decency
is want of sense" It may be found in
/ Lord Roscommon's essay on " Transla-
ted Verbs, which is also the source of
90 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
el." Defoe wrote poem, one verse Of
which was as follows:
| Whenever God erects house of prayer.
! The devil is to build a chapel there
And twill be A'und, upon examination,
| The latter has the largest congregation
But in writing this, Defoe only versi-
! fed a well-known proverb of his day.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melan-
choly," says: Where God hath a 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, a writer of
the seventeeth century. From Pope's
| rich stories of thought we gather many
popular maxims Pleased with a rat
tie, ,tickled with a straw ;" Whatever
is, is right - 90 Order is Heavens first
law" ''Honor and shame from no condi-
tion rise - "A An honest mans the no
blest work of God, may all be found
in Pope's Essay on Man. In his
d" Essay on Criticism :" GA little learn |
I Il. IT,, =
human, to forgive divine ;" ''Fools rush /
in where angels fear to tread - 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 used in the extravaganza of /
fattery expressive of this idea:
When nature made thee she broke the |
mould"
Byron uses it in the closing lines of |
his melody on the death of Sheridan
.'sighing that nature forme5 5esSsssssas.Gs =.
-~u-,sssass.<. <.seFcg1 Smmof ssying, 7
Consistency, thou arta jewel, has puz-
zletl many a scholar, and whether or not /
the following authority may be relied
upon as the st 'rting point, or as only /
using a borrowed idea, cannot
assert. In a ballad entitled, jolly /
Robyn Roughhead," published in 1764,
in a little volume OF English and
Scotch ballads, the poet bewalls the
extravaganza in dress, which he consid-
ers the grand enormity of his day, and
makes Robyn address his wife as fol-
lows:
.'Tushl tush; my lassie such thoughts re-
Comparisons are cruel,
Fine dresses suit to frames as fine,
Consistencie's jewel =
eve live in deeds, not Year,,
"Iife is but means unto an END,
and, An-up-hill work when we would |
do, all down-hill when we suffer-, are
quotations fl ON Ba'.ey's "Festus.
For sol1e tinae there was ccnsldera-
BILE perplexity as to the origin OF the
familiar line, Though lost TO slgh1'
to memory dear" but it has been final
lv settled that it originated with Ruth
ven JENKINS, and was first published IN
the Greenwich Magazine for mariners
in 1701.
Though thick and thin, None
but the brave deserve the fair" and
Death and deaths half-brother,
sleep, are from Dryden.
Hs'Tis distance lends enchantment to
the view" and "Like angels visits,
| few and far between" are from Camp
bells " Pleasures of Hope"
In a collection of old songs, pub
| lished in the sixteenth century, we ind,
1.-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, " Brevlty is
| the soul of wit" Courses not loud,
bnt deep" "Make assurance doubly
sure eve shall not look upon his
like again" and SO many others that
we find it dangerous, with our limited
snace. to even make q commencement.
But while we owe n 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 Uice 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 a
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" Blessings brighten as
they take flight" from Youpg's Night
Thoughts" /" "God made the country,
man made the town." from Cowper'f
"Task," which is also the source, OF
"The cup that cheers but not inebrl
ases,'' sne the oft-quoted line, " MOI
much the worse for wear.
Congrieve, in his play of ''The Ole
E Bachelor" gives '' Married in haste, We
E may repent at leisure;" and " Musl,
! hath charms to sooth savage breast.
is by the same author, and occurs II
. his SO Morning Bride.
"Where ignorance is bliss, tbs IoA.
!. TO be wise. is in Gray's "Ode on Etol
/ college i" Christmas comes but once
}. year." and cit is an i'll wind that blow
L L nobody any good" were wr tten o