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.

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.