OPPORTUNITY.

What may be done at any time will be done at no time.

By the street of By-and-by one arrives at the house of Never" (Spanish).1

66

Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

"One to-day is worth ten to-morrows

(German).2

To-day must borrow nothing of to-morrow" (German).3 "When God says to-day, the devil says to-morrow (German). Talleyrand used to reverse these maxims : by never doing to-day what he could put off till tomorrow he avoided committing himself prematurely.

Strike while the iron is hot.

This proverb is cosmopolitan; but

is peculiar to

Make hay while the sun shines

England, and, as Trench remarks, could

have had its birth only under such variable skies

as ours.

1 Por la calle de despues se va á la casa de nunca

2 Ein Heute ist besser als zehn Morgen.

Heute muss dem Morgen nichts borgen.

Wenn Gott sagt: Heute, sagt der Teufel: Morgen.

Take the ball at the hop.

Take time while time is, for time will away.

Time and tide wait for no man.

"Stay

"God keep you from It is too late (Spanish).1 "A little too late, much too late" (Dutch).2 but a while, you lose a mile" (Dutch).3

66

After a delay comes a let.

Delays are dangerous.

Especially in affairs of love and marriage. Therefore, When thy daughter's chance comes, wait not her father's coming from the market" (Spanish). Close with the offer on the spot. "When the fool has made up his mind the market has gone by " (Spanish).5

He that will not when he may,

When he will he shall have nay.

Some refuse roast meat, and afterwards long for the smoke of it" (Italian)."

The nearer the church, the farther from God. "Next to the minster, last to mass

1 Guarde te Dios de hecho es.

2 Een wenig te laat, veel te laat.

3 Sta maar een wijl, gij verliest een mijl.

(French).7

4 Quando á tu hija le viniere su hado, no aguardes que vienga su padre del mercado.

5 Quando el necio es acordado, el mercado es ya pasado.

• Tal lascia l'arrosto, chi poi ne brama il fumo. Qui refuse,

muse.

7 Près du monstier, à messe le dernier.

1

"The nearer to Rome, the worse Christian" (Dutch) 1
The buyer of many books will probably read few of
them, and somebody has said that he never was afraid
of engaging in a controversy with the owner of a large
library. Many a Londoner would never see half its
lions but for the necessity of showing them to country
cousins.

The shoemaker's wife goes worst shod.

Where the best wine is made the worst is commonly drunk. Better fish is to be had in Billingsgate than on the seacoast.

! Hoe digter bij Rom, hoe slechter Christ.

Additional

(Spanish) There are no birds in last year's nest

"See " Longfellows Pers" 4 773

UNCERTAINTY OF THE FUTURE.

HOPE.

3

Man proposes, God disposes.1

"There's a divinity that shapes men's ends,
Rough hew them how they will."

He that reckons without his host must reckon again.

Don't reckon your chickens before they are hatched.

Some of the eggs may be addled. Remember the story of Alnaschar.

Sune enough to cry "chick" when it's out o' the shell.-Scotch.
Gut nae fish till ye get them. -Scotch.

2

Cry no herring till you have it in the net' (Dutch). "First catch your hare," says Mrs. Glasse, and then you may settle how you will have it cooked. The Greeks and Romans thought it not wise "To sing triumph before the victory." It is a rash bargain "To sell the bird on the bough" (Italian); or "The

4

1In French, L'homme propose, Dieu dispose; in German, Man denkt's, Gott lenkt's. The Spanish form is a little different: Los dichos en nos, los hechos en Dios.

Roep geen haring eer hij in't net is.

3 Ante victoriam canere triumphum.

Vender l'uccello in sù la frasca.

bearskin before you have caught the bear" (Italian),1 as Æsop has demonstrated. Finally, "Unlaid eggs are uncertain chickens" (German).2

Praise a fair day at night.

It is not good praising a ford till a man be over.

Don't halloo till you are out of the wood.

3

"Don't cry Hey!' till you are over the ditch (German). "Look to the end" (Latin). "No man can with certainty be called happy before his death,' as the Grecian sage told Croesus. "Call me not olive till you see me gathered " (Spanish).5

To build castles in the air.

"6

To let imagination beguile us with visionary prospects. The metaphor is intelligible to everybody, but that in the French equivalent, "To build castles in Spain," " requires explanation. The Abbé Morellet ascribes the origin of this phrase to the general belief in the boundless wealth of Spain after she had become mistress of the mines of Mexico and Peru. This is plausible but wrong, for the "Roman de la Rose," which was published long before the discovery of America, contains this line, Lors feras chasteaulx en Espagne. M. Quitard says

1 Non vender la pelle dell' orso prima di pigliarlo.

2 Ungelegte Eier sind ungewisse Hünnlein.

3 Rufe nicht " Juch!" bis du über den Graben bist.

• Respice finem.

5 No me digas oliva hasta que me veas cogida.

• Faire des châteaux en Espagne.