Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1889-06-25
ABOUT PROVERBS.
OBSCURE or ORIGIN, BUT tccePT-
20 FROM INTRINSIC MERIT.

20 FROM INTRINSIC MERIT.
Definition. Given sf Them by Famous Nee.
a Rsf.r.nos Co en-. Hook ef rro.srbs-
Quotation. from Ch.aesr. Harm. and
Others.
To begin at the beginning. what IL
proyerbi Lord John Ru-sells definition
was. Tho Wit % one. the wisdom Of
many" In a quaint old hook. The
worthies Of England. written by Thomas
Fuller, an English divine and author.
published In 1850. proverb Is defined Ia
h. Much matter decoctci into few
words Francis Bacon. the well known
philo-ophic author and lawyer. made
lord chancellor Of England by James /.
and dismissed. disgraccd and hned for
receiving bribcs from mitors, was char.
acterized In Popo's satire in this oouple,i
n parts Allarr the. thlnk hos nacoa shin>i.
The st-sf. brightest meancst - lnankini
VARIOUS pETiSIrioSs.
Ihcon, however. went very near the
truth when ho wrote. The genius, wit
anil spirit Of a nation are discovered by
their proverbs"
Fleming says; Proverbs embody the
current and practical philosophy of an
age or nation Brnnde tells us that
Proverbs are. for the most part, rules
81 moral or still more properly ~ prudiAl
conduct" Dr. johnson said that they
were short sentences, frequently re-
pcaicd by the people" Cervanies. au.
thor ~ "Don QuiKote, who may H. said
10 have pcpp-rcd tho conversation a.
Sancho PanEa with proverbs, declares
them 20 b. short sentences drawn from
long experiences In this the immortal
peasant squire rescmbled IIudibras, Of
whom Butler wrote
For rhstortc. be coaii not ops
nj. mouth but cat ther. esv uOTs
II is calculated that there are now In
use. among EurOpean nations and the
English speaking people Of the United
States. not fewer than 10000 proverbs.
by far tho largest proportion of which
are Spanish. They enter very eHisn-
siycly into the ordinary conversation %
SpaniaTdA Hence the propricty on Ger
vantes' part Of making saneho PanEa
Ignorant and vulgar. as n peasant of the
time and place would have been. but Al-o
shrcwd and pncticaD speak very much
In proverbs. the language Of his practical
good sense.
For the most part. though proverbs are
to b. found In all languages and In tho
history u all nations. generally In their
early stages. there Is NO record ~ their
birth nor 81 their paternity. They have
bccn accepted. not as resting on the au-
ihority - rrycrcd name. bat from their
inherent truth % scmblance of truth. In
fullncss of time. which means In or near
the lat three or four centuries. men
made collections % them. The publioa-
ton In the year 1900 of volume by
Erasmus. which be callei "Adagia,' hrst
set the learned men Of Europe on the
track ~ proycrb collecting lie was the
iirst In that line. az least the firSt who
had Travelled Tar upon IL. Since then the
/ publication of proverbs has been very
general. and a heavy harvest ~ this sort
has hccn gathered In from the ordinary
specch as well a. the written works of
Spain. Italy. France. Germany ami Eng.
land. There are now at least from
thirty o. forty different collections ~
English proverbs IL was Ia Asia. aid
to have bccn the birthplace. and cradle
of the human mce. that proverbs found
their way into the popular spccch of Pal-
estinc and Iabylonia-
soLoMoNs WISDOM
In the box ~ Proverbs In the Bible.
there l. wisdom In them. bat not parti-
Gle of wit IT, opening words, The prov
erts - solomon. the son II David. the
king Of Israel. give us IL current lie
brew title. Il has also been called In the
Talmud. and by more than one very early
Christian writer, The Book ~ Wisdom
Generally. 10y Jews and Christians. IL Ia
designated The Proverbs of solomon
and. representing tho wisdom of which
the Hebrews thought ~ much. stands at
the head ~ the whole class 81 books
known as the Sapiental. The Bible cred
it, solomon with the authorship of $500
proverbs and l i,O0j songs Much of thu
former remain; few Of the latter Most
probably solomon collected short and
telling phrases then usod In conversation,
adding many thoughts of bis own. The
oldest proyerb on record l.. "Wickc,lness
procccdeth from the wicked. which Qn
Samuel xiv. i2) David declared 10 10
"the proyerb OF the ancients-
quently much older than any composed
by his son solomon.
Those of the east are grave and simple;
of Greece, intellectual, Of Rome. more
worldly; ~ Spain, stately and thought
full. Of Italy. poetic yet gross; of Ger
many, subtle and shrewd; % England.
very practical Many OF these last.
which are our own. indecd. are taken
from tho poets. Chaucer, the father of
English poetry, who Is supposed 10 have
bcen born early In the reign of Edward
IlI-the date on his tombstone Is 1893
and who died about the year 400. wrote
much of this proyerbial philosophy. In
the prologue 90 the Testament % Love"
be has. Habit maketh no monk. nor
wearing u gilt spurs maketh no knight
Henry Slogan. a contemporary of Chas-
Ger. thought ~ well Of this idea that be
put into his own poem. "a Moral Balade.-
these words;
lie l. gentle: though he rich seem.
Al wear be mitrr. crO~n of diAdem
Sir Thomas Elyot put the same idea In
"The Governor" published IN 1891. I'VE
have In this realm coins which he called
mobiles. As long as they seem 10 be gold.
they be - called; but II they b. counter.
feited. and made In brass. copper or other
vile metal. who. for the print only. call.
eth them noblesi Whereby IL appeareth
that the estimation l. the metal aud not
In the print OF figure II i most prob
able that Robert Burns never read Chau.
Ger. never heard OF Scogan or Elyot; yet
the intuition Of his genius seized their
thought and % condensed 1t that We now
have.
lie rank Il hst the sIineas stamp
Ths mans the gold for q that
Thomas J. Bowditch In Troy Time&