Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-04
Wise Saws.
From the Familiar Precepts and Maximi
 of Famous Authors.
New York Times I

New York Times
 Franklin was the American master of apho ] ristic wisdom. His precepts and maxims have been sometimes objected to as on a low
 plane of selfish thrift, and savoring rather of political economy than of the golden rule But Franklin was a true sage in the old Greek sense of the word, and after the manner Of the seven wise men, who each of them is represented as having uttered some memora- ble saying which became proverb. The most
 famous of these sayings was the injunction of Thales 'Know thyself." The writer whether of prose or poetry, whose works most abound in passages which have become proverbial and current in the everyday speech of everybody has achieved lasting and gen. ulne fame. The two English writers who have achieved this sort of fame beyond any others are Shakespeare and Pope. Gray wrote but lit-
 tie, but that little has become almost all of it, proverbial. Eastern wise men, from the days of Solomon down, and long before, were al- ways fond of expressing their wisdom senten- tiously. Every reader of Don Quixote'' is
 aware that the Spanish language is peculiar ly rich in proverbs Sancho Panza profusely seasons his remarks and conversations with his master of the rueful countenance with proverbial spice. But most nations of any account, whether ancient or modern, had and have coplous literature of proverbs, or
 brief, pregnant sayings, which go direct to the mark, and compress great deal of truth in regard to men and things in the smallest possible verbal compass, furnishing sort of
 portable philosophy of life, or small change
 of wisdom, for daily use. Proverbs are ordi-
 narily as blunt as they are pithy The Latin
 poet Horace had 8 faculty of offering himself
 in sententious way, and wrote many lines
 which still circulate among scholars, at least,
 as proverbs. Of course, the proverbs of the
 various nations are racy of their soils. Mul-
 titudes of them are blunt and homeIy, with
 the bluntness and homeliness of common life.
 Bacon was not only a collector of proverbs
 but the author of great number of senten-
 tious sayings full of significance. He ob-
 serves that s'he that goes into 8 foreign country before he knows it's language goes to
 school and not to travel" Whenever we dip
 into collection of proverbs we are sure of
 finding wit and wisdom both. Here are four
 sayings about success: Successful guilt is
 the bane of society,"" Success concentrates
 the foulest crimes" Success makes g fool
 seem wise" Success is never blamed
 Many lonely, friendless man in a throno has
 felt that a great city is g great solitude, more
 depressing with it's social contrast than even
 great forest. He who has good health is
 young, whatever his age may be- He who
 serves the public has but scurvy master.
 Here is proyerb which has the note of
 Scotland about it: "A dog winna yovI if ve
 fell him wi a bane." Impatient social re-
 formers, who cannot tolerate the world as it is, are taught patience by the Persian pro-
 VerD: me most hlgn God sees and hears; my neighbor knows nothing, and is always finding fault" One of the oldest Greek proverbs asserts that those whom the gods love die young, or, as it has been finely put by an English poet: s.Te die young is heavens diEinest gift. 'An older proverb. which has come down from the far past is to the effect that the voice of the people is the voice of God. A hand book of the proverbial sayings of all ages and nations may be called the judgment of all the grand men. on every conceivable subject l delivered in terse, epieranimatic sen | tences. The proverbs of all nations are very l full on the subject of fools. Gray comes to | the rescue of fools with one of his lines, l which assertskthat, If ignorance is bliss, 'tis