Evening star., 1898-06-04

nome: the Idle laughs, Take-lt-easy ana
Live-long are brothers. the synic sneers,
''of soup and love soup is the best" or
count siller after a. your kim.
HumOr and Sarcasm.
Humor plays great part in proverbs,
and many of this sort are coarse. Sarcasm
makes it's butts not only of things in gen
eral, as the noisiest drum has nothing In
| it but air." but in particular of certain
professions. and Of womankind. The church
does not come off scathless, for "a priests
pocket is not easily filled" Greed seems to
strike the peasant as the most prominent
mark of the cleric. As for the army, dom
| inies come for your wine and officers for
your daughters But law and physic are
the best abused of the professions: we may
keep clear of the church six days in the
week. but these are always with US. Laws
catch flies and let hornets go free, "as the
man is friended 50 the law is ended" hell
and chancery are always open'-such are
d few out of scores. The peasant observes.
tco that "the doctor seldom takes physic,
and is of opinion that 'the best physicians
are Dr. Diet, DR.. Quiet and Dr. Merryman.
He would agree with Montaigne. Thanks
be to Cod" says the essayist, there is no
commerce between u.s. l do ever de-
spisc it, and when 1 sick, instead of
entring into league or composition with it.
L then begin to hate and fear it most; and
swer such as urge me to take physicke
that at least they will tarie til such time
as l have recovered my health and strength
again, tnat tnen 1 may the better De en-
abled to endure the violence and hazard of
their potions.'' The worst of all. however.
Is reserved for woman; against her hun
dreds of gibes are aimed. "A bag of f1eas
Is easier to watch than woman" says
the polite German; and the Englishman Is
little better-"a man of straw is worth a
woman of gold.' Her love of gossip is con-
stf ntiy girded at; "a woman conceals what
she knows not, "a woman'S tongue wagS
like lambs tail" Most cruel of all is
the Frenchman, who says, 1T is nothing at
all, only a woman drowning" There re-
mains one last class to speak of. in which
unlettered philosophy rises to it's height.
II, this exaitation it is delivered of high
raj maXims, such as honesty is the
best policy. virtue is its own reward.
These are rare as compared with the rest.
tive orientals than among our practical
folk.
History Reflected.
There is in the few last mentioned some
indication of national characteristics, and
there are a great many more in which the
history or the surroundings of a people
are reflected in it's proverbs. In the old
days it was natural for an Englishman to
talk of ''long-bow man. or to say plain
as pikestaff; and not so many years
since he thought it 'as well to hang for
a sheep as a lamb Dutchman says,
better lose the anchor than the ship; "a
Frenchnlan, 'ebtter lose the wool than the
Sheep" and Italian, better lose the sad
die than the horse The Chinaman recog-
riZes that even "A CLEVER daughter-in-law
cannot cook without rice: but a Hebrew,
or one who knew the Hebrew Scriptures,
would rather speak of making bricks with
out straw.
In sickness, while the Englshman and
the Ere HChman, as We have seen, despair
of being cured at all, the canny celestial
bargains with his doctor, No cure, no
pay" God keep me from judge and doc
tori is the Turks prayer: and he has
Lost
days" We guess in what country q
man gets drunk a lord All these
are true proverbs; that is to say, they arise
no one kncws how among the people.
Probably many heads go to the making
of proverb. and they change (as we know
that songs and airs DO, by an unconscious
process of selection, until the residue Is
rubbed down to its most convenient shape.
But those literary men who have the fac
ulty often make new ones, which may be-
come common in books as the popular
proverbs. though they rarely, if ever. come
into use among tine folk. We do not. of
course. now speak of those who, like Ger
vantes. record proverbs, but of those who
Full of Phrases.
Shakespeare is very storehouse of such,
but he is by no means alone. The Eliza
bethans. in the freshness of their vigor,
are full of phrases of the true stamp.
Notable among these are Peele. Greene and
-NeiSii- oci d. d Silt|J it" SloIIi, say
George Peele; '.curst as a wasp" this
mouse would make foul hole in fair
cheese" - 'tis merry IN hall when boards
wag all law is like plaice. a black side
and white" gently takes the gentleman
what oft the clown would scorn.'' Or
again, these taken almost at random from
Robert Greene's prose: ''Wishers and
| woulders were never good householders,
corn was the floor, all his sheep clipt,
and the wool sold" buy an ounce of pleas
ure with ton of mishaps," sat down on
Penniless Bench Now hear Thomas Nash:
Il can keep pace with Greenwich barge"
mo barrel better herring "a churl cannot
choose but prove ungrateful. "as hoary
Dutch butter. ''ine fox can tell fair
tale he that hath money in his purse
| must go dine with Sir John Best-be- Trust,
at the sign OF the Chalk and POST Web
ster. too, is full of these things, and in
deed, it is difficult to light on an author
of the time who has not the trick; al
though, in our opinion. the trio of friends
just spoken OF are most racy of all the less
known authors. Some of these sayings are
popular proverbs, but the greater number
were clearly made up on the spot.
High Compliment.
| The book before US. from which We have
strayed in Pindaric fashion, is a collection
| of proverbs which cannot fall far short of
| two and twenty thousand, slightly less than
| Bohn's two collections together. They are
drawn from a great number of sources
| from most European languages and some
eastern. but, unfortunately. the list of au-
| thoriues is not given, nor are exact refer
enceS.
There are a great number of poetical quo
| tatiols, from Shakespeare, Byron, Tenny-
| son and others, many of which are rather
| epigrams than proverbs but the Iess-known
Elizabethans do not seem to have been
drawn upon This is pity, for as We have
| pointed out. there is rich harvest wait
ing for the reaper. Their mantle would
| seem to have fallen upon Punch, from
which many excellent niaxims are taken
but we do not share the editors admira-
| ton for the rather poIderous phrases of
| BlackwoGd's Magazine. However, we have
| no wish TO carp and find fault. The book
/ Is extremely interesting and well printed
and ii is easy to find what you want. 1t is
| impossible TO dip into It anywhere without
| seeing some jewel wo-:h the keeping. and
| 1t is rot easy to put the book down. Take
| Il all in all. it is the most satisfactory book
| of the kind know.
An Unfortunate Lingufst.
From the New York Tribune
| John was an ambitious Chnaman He