The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-02-14
EVERYDAY SAYINGS.
rERsE QUOTATIONS THAT ARE popu-
LAR FAvoRITes.


Some Of Them Are Of Remote Origin,
and II IL of Interest to Learn When
and by Whom These Words That
! Live Were Brought Into Being.
The everyday sayings which are on
| everybody's tongue sometimes have q
| faroff origin, and 1t is interesting to learn
when and by whom they were first said.
The society editor could Ill describe a
festivity without the aid Of 'the wee sma'
hours ayont the twal," which is found in
Burns poem Death and Doctor Horn
brook" Dancing is never dancing, but
people "trip the light, fantastic toe" for
which expression the editor is indebted to
no less q parsonage than John Milton
Conspicuous by his absence" was used
by Lord John Russell, who quoted 1t from
Tacitus. And echo answers where" is
from Lord Byron's bride Of Abydos. I"
ut beggars description" is found in can
tony and Cleopatra" "Where ignorance
Is bliss tits folly to be wise'' was said by
Gray IN his Ode to Eton College"
We'll begun is half done" may be traced
back to Horace. According to her gar
ment she cut her cloth" was said by Dry
den in 1.-THE Cock and Fox" Sir John
Holt in "Sir William Morris Case" said,
The better the day the better the deed. !"
"Out of sight, out Of mind" dates back to
1868 and is found in Googe's "Epytaphes,
Eglogs, and Sonnettes. "And there,
though last, not least, is from Skeletons
Colin Clout," and Through thick and
thin" from the Faery Queen"
Rare" Ben Jonson gives the advice to
"Laugh and be fat" One of Bishop
Horne's sermons is the source Of "It is
better to wear out than to rust out"
George Wither in Poem on Christmas''
gives the warning that Care will kill
cat" and couplet from John Wolcot's
"Expostulary Odes' contains the same
sentiment:
Care to our CONN adds nail no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out.
Nothing venture, nothing have" Is
found in Five Hundred Points Of Hus-
bandry," by Thomas Tusser. Churchill,
in "The Ghost" said, "The more haste
the less speed" "To go in one ear and
out at the other" probably had its origin
in Chaucer's lone care it heard, at the
other 1t went out"
Prior, in his "Epilogue to Lucius," gave
us an adage which is in use every day,
THE gray mare will prove the better
horse" my dear, my better half" was
said by Sir Philip Sidney, in Arcadia"
Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gan
DER is from "The New Maxims of Tom
Brown" and another proverb often exem-
plifled is from a fable by Gay:
In every age and cline we see
Two of a trade can ne'er agree.
Ben Jonson, in 1.-THE Devil Is an ASS"
says that "A burnt child breads the fire."
" IT'S good to look before you leap"
comes from Martin Parker's Excellent
New Medley" Goldsmith tells US that
Man wants but little here below"
Coming events cast their shadows be-
fore" is found in "Lochiels Warming"
by Campbell. Discretion is the better
part Of valor" occurs in Beaumont and
Fletcher's "a King and No King" and
Shakespeare uses almost the same words
in Henry IV''-"The better part of valor
is discretion, in which better part have
saved my life"
Many other sayings have been used
with slight variations by several authors.
Burton's Anatomy Of Melancholy" in
Heyward's "A Woman Killed by Kind
ness" In Donnc, and In George Herbert,
In Don Quixote" we read that Com
PARSONS are offensive" Thomas Kem-
pis says that "Of two evils tho less is to be
chosen" and in Priors limitations of
Horace" we find, "Of two evils I have
chosen the least" Wordsworth is respon-
sble for the statement that 1.-THE child is
father to the man," but in Paradise Re.
gained Milton had already said:
The childhood shows the man
As morning shows the day.
The changes have been rung on the ex.
preston "All is not gold that glitters."
Middleton gives Gan is not gold that
glistens." Spenser, in the "Faerie
Queenc,' says, "Gold is not all that gold
en- seems" Lydgate has "In all that
clusters gold all is not gold that outward
showeth light" Dryden version is "All,
as they say, that glistens is not gold"
and Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales"
says the same thing, but with more cir
Cumlocution:
But think that which schincth as the gold
Is naught as that have herd tell.
hhSho iASh III Outt lulHDtlS, IONtE
makes Rory OMOore say. And in "The
Merry Wives of Windsor" we find Good
luck lies In odd numbers, "** they say
there is divinity in odd numbers, either
in nativity, chance or death. " Heaven
never helps the man who will not act"
said Sophoclcs, and Sir Philip Sidney put
the same idea in smaller compass in "God
helps those who help themselves"
"HOly" George Herbert is tho author or
compiler of many shirwd sayings, such as
"Wouldst thou have thy cake and keep it
toof' Tho wearcr knows where the
shoe pinches, Little pitchers have wide
ears, at is POOL sport that is not worth
the candle, Coos Mills grind slow but
sure, Half the would knows not how
the other half lives" His bark is worse
than his bite" The burnt child breads
the fire, " 1.-THE mill cannot grind with
water that is past, Whose house is glass
must not throw stones at ,her," "God
comes to see without a he'll IAN ill |
laborer quarrels with his tools" ITO a
close shorn sheep God gives wind by |
This is probably the origin of
the prorerb God tcmpers the wind to the
Shorn lamb, which was said by Sterne in
"TriStram Shandy." Herbert also quotes
u Man proposes; God disposes." This
was first said by Thomas a kcmpis.
A great many OF our common sayings
are taken from Shakespeare. AS dead
as door nail" and "To give the devil his
due are from Henry ~" MY cake
is dough- is from 1.-The Tanning of the
Shrew." ''Screw your courage to tho
sticking place" is found In Macbeth
Some quotations from Shakespeare are
credited to the Bible, as, for instance
" That bourne from which no traveller re-
turns, which is used by worthy deacon
once week in prayer meeting in the be-
lief that it is II Scriptural quotation.
Beaumont and Fletcher are responsible
for several much used sayings, such ms
- Bcggars should never be chooscrs,"
found in The Scornful Lady" and lone
mans meat is another mans poison"
which is taken from Loves Cure" and
In Buffers 'HudibrasH occur "1o take
'he wrong SOW by the ear" ''To get by
took or crook, "''Yo count their chickens
ere they re matched and ITO smell rat"