Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-22
FAMOUS PHRASES

TT is recorded that an ignorant person, ex-
planning her distaste for Shakespearean
performances, said that his plays were too
full of quotations. Yet we too, though we
may pride ourselves upon our learning, prob
ably do not know the origin of half the COM
mon phrases we use as careleSSly as verbs IN
Our daily conversation.
No less a person than Cicero first made
use of the expression, "Whlle there's life,
there's hope, in letter he wrote to Attlcus.
@We are in the same boat is not modern
slang, but occurs in letter written by Glenn
emit l., Bishop of Rome, to the Church of
Corinth in the first century This letter is
extant, and is one of the priced documents of
the early church.
II never put off till tomorrow what can
do today" was Lord Chesterfelds explana-
ton of how he managed to do SO much work.
"Whatever is worth doing at all is worth
doing WE'LL" he wrote later in the famous
Letters to His Son.
In some of the expressions we use hab1tu-
allv may be crystallized an epoch of history.
Such is the motto of the Order OF the
Garter, "Honi soft qui NAL y benSe' (shamed
be he who thinks evil of it) which was given
by Edward III. of England. Wishing to
draw the best soldiers in the world to him, he
proposed a revival of the Round Table Of
King Arthur holding a tournament 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 sub
iects to attend, at the same time mlsrepre-
senting Edwards motives: Several years
later, when Edward founded the Order Of
the Garter, he chose a motto that seemed to
challenge his rival monarch to think wrong
of it if he dared.
Later English history has not been laggard
in increasing the supply of apt remarks that
have grown into everyday sayings. Lord
Eldon Lord Chancellor of England during
the first twenty-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 being called Broftam,
and in this regard Eldon was the chief Of
fender. 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 frequently to
different people who could have no knowl-
edge that their thought had been given ut
terance before. mo man is a hero to his
valet" has been paraphrased by scores from
Madame du Cornuel, a witty Frenchwoman
of the seventeenth century, to DR.. Johnson
ana NdpOleOI lie uISI record OI IL, HOW
ever, is found in Plutarch, who states that
when Hermodotus addressed poem to An
tigonous l., King of Sparta, hailing him as
son of the sun and god, the monarch re-
piled, "My bodyservant sings me no such
song"
1t was Diogenes the cynic, who declared
that "habit is second nature" The phrase
circumstances over which he has no con-
troll" was used by the Duke of Wellington in
letter concerning some affairs in which his
son was mixed up and with which he declined
to interfere. Dickens also used the ex-
preston a few years later when he had
Micawber write to David Copperfield, "Cir-
cumstances beyond my individual con-
troll" etc.
The term "ilustrious predecessor" was
first used by President Van Buren, in his in
augural address in compliment to General
Jackson.
Conspicuous by their absence has been