Rock Island Argus., 1913-07-31
FAMOUS PHRASES
Origin of Some of Worlds Most
Popular Quotations.

IL is recorded that an ignorant per
son. explaining her distaste for Shake
spearean performances. said that his
plays were too full of quotations. Yet
we, too, though we may pride ourselves
upon our learning. probably do not
know the origin of half the common
phrases we use as carelessly as verbs
in our daily conversation.
No less a person than Cicero first
made use of the expression, while
there's life there's hope" in letter he
wrote to Atticus. I'VE are in the same
boat" is not modern slang, but occurs
in letter written by Clement l.. bish-
op of Rome, to the Church of Corinth
in the first century. This letter is ex-
tant and is one of the priced docu-
ments of the early church.
II never put off till tomorrow what
l can do today" was Lord Chester
fields explanation of how he managed
to do so much work. "Whatever is
worth doing at all is worth doing well'
he wrote later in the famous letters to
his son.
In some of the expressions we use
habitually may be crystalliZed an
epoch of history Such is the motto Of
the Order of the Garter. "Honi soft qui
NAL y pense" c"Shamed be he who
thinks evil of it'D, which was given by
Edward III of England. Wishing to
draw the best soldiers in the world 10
him. he proposed a revival of the round
Ii 10 lY,r hAl. n
nament at Windsor castle on New
Years day, 1874. After the contest Of
arms the guests were entertained at
his expense at a round table. Philip,
king of France, was jealous over the
interest this aroused and forbade his
subjects to attend, at the same time
misrepresenting Edwards motives.
Several years later, when Edward
founded the Order of the Garter. he
chose motto that seemed to chal-
lenge his rival monarch to think wrong
| of it II he dared.
| Later English history has not been
| laggard in increasing the supply of apt
remarks that have grown into every
day sayings. Lord Eldon, lord chan
cellor of England during the first twen-
| ty-six years of the nineteenth century.
continually mispronounced the name
| of Henry Brougham. afterward TO be
| a successor IN the chancellor's office
Brougham objected to be called Broff-
am, and In this regard Eldou was the
chief offender. Once. after Brougham
/ had made an excellent speech. Eldon
/ by way of apology pronounced his
name correctly and made proverb,
New brOomS sweep clean"
! The same expression occurs fire.
quently to different people who could
have no knowledge that their thought
had been given utterance before. NO
man is a hero to his valet has been
paraphrased by scores. from Nine. du
Cornnel. witty Frenchwoman Of the
seventeenth century, to DR.. Johnson
and Napoleon. The first record OF 1t.
however, is found In Plutarch. who
states that when HermodOtus address,
ed a poem to Autigonous l.. king OF
Sparta. hailing him as son of the san
and a god. the monarch replied. My
body servant sings me no such song"
1t was DiOgenes, the cynic. who de-
clared that habit is second nature"
The phrase circumstances over which
he has no control WAS used by the
Duke OF Wellington in letter con-
corning some affairs In which his son
was mixed up and with which he de
clined TO interfere Dickens also used
the expression a few years later when
he had Micawber write to David Cop
perfield. circumstances beyond my in.
dividual control" etc.
Conspicuous by their absence has
been used on many occasions in mod.
EN- Oratory. 1t was first used by
= Tacitus IN relating that in the funeral
procession Of Julia. niece OF Cato. sis
ter OF Bratns. wife of Cassius. many
Of the images Of the most famous
families in Rome were seen. but Cas-
sius and Bruins shone preeminPut be
s-ause their images We're not dis
played
! Nothing is certain but death and