Making a poor and slender meal; some simple pulse made savoury with salt, being the usual diet of the poor, and such as many of the ancient philosophers were contented with. Diogenes being invited to dine with a wealthy nobleman, refused his offer, being more pleased to lick salt at Athens, he said; that is, to make a frugal repast there, than to feed on the richest dainties. «Leaving the nobles, clad in purple, and their splendid tables», Seneca says, «partake of the frugal board of Demetrius. When I hear this excellent man discoursing from his couch of straw, I perceive in him, not a preceptor only, but a witness of the truth; and I cannot doubt that Providence has endowed him with such virtues and talents, that he might be an example, and a monitor of the present age». Demetrius was banished from Rome, on account of the freedom he used in reproving the vices of the great.

Soon enough, if well enough, was an apothegm frequently in the mouth of Cato. When we are shown any work of art, we do not inquire bow long it was in performing, but how well it is executed. If it is complete, and excellent in its kind, we readily give due commendation to the artist, whether it was struck off at a heat, or effected with much labour, thought, and attention.

"Fair enough, if good enough," for "handsome is, who handsome does," and "sat cito si sat bene," "soon enough, if well enough," are proverbs of all ages, and all countries, and need no explanation. "Hermosa es por cierto, la que es buena de su cuerpo," the woman who is modest is sufficiently handsome.

"A stitch in time saves nine." The most serious diseases, if taken in time, might often be cured. "Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur, Quum mala per longas invaluere moras," oppose the disease in the beginning, for medicine will be applied too late, when it has taken deep root, and fixed itself in the constitutions. To the same purport are, "Sero clypeum post vulnera," it is too late to have recourse to your shield, after you are wounded. "La casa quemada, acudis con el agua," the Spaniards say, "When the house is burnt, you then bring water." Evil dispositions in children, are also to be corrected before they become habits. "Qui bien aime, bien chatie," or "Spare the rod, and spoil the child."

Pietra che rotula non piglia muffa, and piedra movediza no la cubre moho, that is, a rolling stone is ever bare of moss, is used to be said to persons who are frequently changing their situation or employment; such persons being more likely to dissipate and waste, than to improve and increase their property. To the same purport is, Planta quæ sæpe transfertur non coalescit, the tree that is often moved does not thrive.

Romper il giaccio, to break the ice; any one beginning a discourse or business which had been long expected, or commencing a conversation when a company has for some time sat silent, is said to have broken the ice.

It is difficult for persons advanced in years to acquire a new language. The rigid and unyielding muscles of aged persons, render them as unfit for pronouncing a language to which they have not been accustomed, as the limbs of a cripple are for dancing. But the sentiment may he extended further, as they would be scarcely less successful in attempting the acquisition of any new art or science; such acquisition requiring a greater degree of vigour, than they can be supposed to have retained. The province of the ancient, if their time has been well employed, is rather to instruct others, than to hunt after new sources of knowledge. Plutarch says, "that the life of a vestal virgin was divided into three portions; in the first of which she learned the duties of her profession, in the second she practised them, and in the third she taught them to others." This is no bad model for persons in every situation of life. The proverb may be applied to persons attempting any thing for which they are peculiarly disqualified.

The spring follows the winter, sunshine succeeds to rain: "apres ce tems-ci il en viendra un autre," after this season will come another and a different one. This, and other similar phrases have been used both by ancients and moderns, to encourage men to bear their troubles with constancy, by the consolatory reflection that they cannot last forever. For though it be true, as the Spaniard notices, "en cada sendero, ay su atolledera," that in every road there are sloughs in some part of it, when these are passed the rest of the way, may be smooth and level. "It is a long lane," we say, "that has no end," and "when things are at the worst they will mend;" for "etiam mala fortuna suas habet levitates," even illfortune is changeable and will not last forever; but prosperity is probably still more faithless than adversity: when we have attained the summit of our wishes, we may be doomed to suffer an early reverse, and our fall will be the more severe, the greater the eminence from which we are precipitated. "Di gran subida gran caida," from a great height a great fall and "after sweet meat comes sour sauce."

"The prosperous man to-day puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root.
And then he falls as I do."
Woohey's Speech in King Henry VIII.

The Trojans became wise too late; they only came to their senses, when their city was on the eve of being taken. Exhausted by a war of ten years, they then began to consult about restoring Helen, on whose account the contest had been undertaken. The adage is applied to persons, who do dot see the advantage of any measure or precaution until it is too late to adopt it, and is similar to, "when the steed is stolen, we shut the stable door," and to the following of the Italians, and the French, "Serrar la stalla quando s'han perduti i buovi." "Il est tems de fermer l'étable quand les chevaux en sont allé."

A serpent, unless he feeds on serpents, does not become a dragon. It need hardly be mentioned, that the dragon was fabled by the ancients, as a ferocious and destructive beast, and as the head of that class of animals. The adage intimates that kings only become great potentates by destroying neighbouring princes, invading and conquering their territories, as the vast strength of lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, is supported by the destruction of animals of less bulk and power, and as men rarely acquire enormous fortunes, but by injuring and oppressing other.

Non si puo volar senza ale, he would fain fly, hut he wants wings, is said of persons attempting to do what is much beyond their power or capacity ; who speak authoritatively, without having a right to command or power to enforce obedience. It may also be said of any one in excuse for not having done what was expected of him, but which he had not the necessary means for accomplishing. Il ne faut pas voler avant que d'avoir des ailes.

Servants to rich and powerful persons are the most abject of all servants. On account of the great distance there is between them and those they serve, they lose all estimation, «as the shrubs and underwood, that grow near or under great trees, are observed to be the most scrubby and feeble of any in the field, the trees engrossing to themselves all the nourishment». Sirve a señor y sabras que es dolor, serve a great man, and you will know what sorrow is. Cabe Señor, ni cabe igreja no pongas teja, do not lay a tile, that is, do not build a house near a lord, nor near a church, lest they pick a quarrel with you, and dispossess you of your property.

Endeavour to acquit yourself well in whatever station or condition of life your lot may happen to be cast.

"Honour and shame from no conditions rise,
Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

The adage is of general application. Princes, nobles, bishops, lawyers, soldiers, and the meanest individuals, have each of them their distinct province; let them fill them worthily.

"Each might his several province well command,
Would all but stoop to what they understand."

"England expects that every man will do his duty," was the animated speech of Lord Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, where that hero unfortunately fell; or not, perhaps, unfortunately for himself, as it was in the midst of victory, and crowned with glory. Had he died immediately after his unsuccessful attempt on the coast of France, or on his expedition to Denmark, he would have left his fame somewhat diminished, which by his last brilliant action was again mounted to the stars; for the victory at the Nile was not less brilliant than that off Trafalgar. Either of them would have been sufficient to immortalise his name.

Paying a high price for some future and incidental advantage. "Parting with the substance for a shadow". The adage advises not to part with what we actually possess, upon the distant prospect of some doubtful or uncertain profit; "e meglio aver hoggi un uovo, che dimana una gallina", better an egg to-day than a hen to-morrow, or "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". It would be worse than madness in any one in possession of a competence, or exercising successfully any business or profession to hazard all in pursuit of some new scheme, which however promising in appearance, might fail and_involve him in ruin: and yet of this folly there are few but are acquainted with some victims. This, the Spaniards say, is "yr por lana, y bolver tresquilado", going for wool, and returning home shorn. How many young men again, spend whole years of their invaluable time, in cultivating the friendship of some great man in the hope of obtaining preferment, and are only at length weaned from the pursuit, in the course of which they have submitted to all those insults and mortifications incident to a state of dependence, by rinding other, perhaps less obsequious clients, preferred to the office which had been pointed out to them as the reward of their servitude: awaked, at length, from their dream of prosperity, they find the loss of the expected office the smallest part of their misery. They have not only neglected to improve the little fortune they possessed, but have suffered it to slip completely away, or have so reduced it as not to have a sufficiency left for their subsistence; in the meantime they have contracted habits of idleness, which render it impossible for them to search out means of recovering what they have lost: this is buying hope at a dreadfully high price indeed! The adage also alludes to a custom, common, we are told, among the ancients, and which has descended to the present times, of purchasing the produce of an orchard while the trees were only in blossom, or of a field of corn as soon as the seed was committed to the ground, at stipulated prices. This species of gaming was carried so far, that it was not unusual to buy a draught of fishes, or so many as should be taken at one cast of a net; or all the game that should be taken in one day's hunting : and laws, we are told, were framed to regulate this kind of traffic.
"Lord Bacon, being in York-house garden, looking on fishers as they were throwing their net, asked them what they would take for their draught; they answered so much, his lordship would offer them only so much; they drew up their net, and in it were only two or three little fishes; his lordship then told them, it had been better for them to have taken his offer; they replied, they hoped to have had a better draught; but, said his lordship, "hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper". Aubrey's Manuscripts.

Men are in general abundantly attentive to their own interest; if, therefore, you wish them to serve you with diligence, you must make it their interest to do so:

Hoc tibi sit argumentum, semper in promptu situm,
Ne quid expectes arnicos facere, quod per te queas. Be this your rule through life, never leave to others to perform any business for you, which you can do yourself: consonant to this we say, help yourself and your friends will love you.The lark, that had made her nest in a cornfield, was in no haste to quit her habitation so long as she heard that the farmer depended upon the assistance of his neighbours and friends to get in his harvest, but when her young ones told her that the master was coming himself with his sons the next day; now it is time, she said, to be gone, for the business will certainly be done. A Venetian nobleman, we are told, called upon Cosmo de Medicis, to inquire of him by what means he might improve his fortune, and received from him the following rules; «Never to do that by another which he could do himself; not to defer until to-morrow what might be done to-day; and not to neglect small concerns».

He is under the knife, in great danger or extremity. Our phrase, he is under the hatchet, is of similar import. The adage was applied when any one who had fallen into an ambush, into the sea, or into any other peril, was left to wade through, or extricate himself by his own strength or ingenuity. The metaphor is taken from a victim standing at the altar, ready to be sacrificed.

––«fugit improbus et me sub cultro liquit».

Instead of assisting, he fled, and left me to struggle through my difficulties unaided. Occasions offer too frequently of applying this apothegm.

We should believe that under every stone a scorpion may be lodged, which seems to be the sense of the adage; and it is intended to admonish us in all business to aet with deliberation and caution, that we may not involve ourselves in troubles and dangers; particularly we should set a guard over our tongues and not be too communicative, lest we should instruct others in any plans we may have formed for the advancement of our affairs, who may thence be enabled to become our rivals, and prevent the completion of our designs: or by speaking too freely of the concerns of others excite enmities which may be productive of consequences still more mischievous. "Volto sciolto," the Italians say, "i pensieri stretti," be free and open in your countenance and address, but cautious and reserved in your communications. There are many other similar cautions; "Latet anguis in herba," there is a snake in the grass, take care how you tread. "Debaxo de la miel, ay hiel," under the honey you may find gall. "Paredes tien oydos," and "tras pared, ni tras seto, no digas tu secreto." "Walls have ears," be cautious what you say; and "little pitchers have long ears." Children, even when playing about you, are often more attentive to what you are saying, then to their own amusement. "Dizen los ninos en el solejar, lo que oyen a sus padres en el hogar," they tell when abroad, what they hear their parents saying by the fireside. In the countries where scorpions breed, they are frequently found lying unders stones, as worms are in this country; any one therefore incautiously removing a stone, under which one of these venemous reptiles may happen to lie, will be in danger of being stung by the enraged animal, whence the proverb.

Joan is as good as my lady in the dark, and De noche todos los gatos son pardos, in the dark all cats are grey. The following, which is familiar to all my readers, says all that is necessary on this subject:

«Whilst in the dark on thy soft hand I hung,
And heard the tempting syren in thy tongue;
What flames, what darts, what anguish I endured:
But when the candle entered. I was cured».

He hath brought this mischief upon himself. "He hath pulled an old house about his ears." Why would he interfere in a business in which he had no concern? He should have remembered that, "He that meddleth with strife that doth not belong to him, is like one that taketh a mad dog by the ear."