The St. Johns herald., 1891-08-27
WELL-KNoWN SAYINGS.
The Origin of Some Phrases That Have
 Become Proverbial.

The Origin of Some Phrases That Have
 Become Proverbial.
 It will be found on examination that most sayings may be traced back to a literary origin, says the New York Sun. What more common, popular maxim is there than that ''Procrastination is the thief of time?" Yet it is the first line of that most deadly dull of books, Young's Might Thoughts" Crowds of people have been befooled in imagining that 1.-The Lord tempers the wind to the shorn lamb'' is a biblical saying, yet it is only as old as Sterne's Sentimental Journey" Everybody knows about the man whoread Hamlet" at an advanced age, and said he would have liked it if it had not been so full of 'tchestnuts. 5 The fact is that great part of it has become proverbial, and so common property. We no longer have to read the play to imbibe a lot of its philoso- phy, for it is floating in the air about us.
 On the other hand, some sayings un- doubtedly have a popular origin. A splendid example of the evolution of one occurs in the old testament, in the history of Saul. When the future first king of Israel appeared among the prophets the people were astonished. He had been of rather frivolous dispo- sition. Some man in the crowd eX- claimed: ''Is Saul also among the proph- ets?" The expression caught on, and it has been familiar saying ever since.
 We have among ourselves very good example of the same sort in the expres- sion: "A good enough Morgan till after election"
 A difficulty here meets us. How is it that among eastern illiterate nations proverbs of the most perfect form and literary finish are found? The same state of affairs occurs in Spain.
 The explanation lies in the fact that in both cases the people are able to get at literature vicariously. In Persia and the east generally the professional story-teller comes to a village. In the evening the inhabitants sit around the tent and he tells them tales, many of them thousands of years old and full of the condensed wisdom of ages. In Spain the muleteer who wanders about the country fills exactly the same po- sition and to the literature popularized by him must be largely attributed the richness of Spanish in proverbs.
 Tony Weller was the proverb-spinner of the Pickwick crowd. He got his fac ulty in the very same way that the Spanish muleteer and the Persian story teller got theirs. He met great many people in his trips on the coach and his sayings got sharpness and clearness of outline with every fresh repetition. No doubt many of them were retailed by countless appreciative hearers.
 In the same way, the Jarvey in the south of Ireland is by nature a manu- facturcr of proverbs. He is part of all that he has met, and as action and re- action are equal and opposite, all that he has met become part of him.
 When proverb has gained sure place in one language, and strikes some observer of a different race and civiliza- tion, there is difficulty about transport ing it bodily. If it be eastern it will have a reference that will not, for in- stance, appeal to westerns. What then happens is that it is localized. It is treated in the very way that names are altered in good story to give ii local color. In this way an eastern proverb about a camel becomes a westsrn one about horse, and so on.