Nothing can be produced out of nothing.1

Xenophanes speaks thus:

Diogenes of Apollonia. ii.

And no man knows distinctly anything,
And no man ever will.

Pyrrho. viii.

Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for

truth lies deep down."

Euripides says,

Who knows but that this life is really death,

Ibid.

And whether death is not what men call life? Ibid. The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand, they are rough."

ix.

If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.

xi.

The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.

Ibid.

Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good. Epicurus vi.

He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon.

Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.

xxvii.

ATHENÆUS.

Circa 200 A. D.

(Translation by C. D. Yonge, B. A.)

It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had, - - being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity."

1 See Shakespeare, page 146.

The Deipnosophists. vi. 23.

2 See Campbell, page 512.

8 Said with reference to mining operations.

ATHENÆUS. AUGUSTINE. — ALI TALEB.

767

Every investigation which is guided by principles of Nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.1 The Deipnosophists. vii. 11. Dorion, ridiculing the description of a tempest in the "Nautilus" of Timotheus, said that he had seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan."

On one occasion some one put a very little wine wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. very small for its age," said Gnathæna.

viii. 19.

into a

"It is

xiii. 47.

Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.3

SAINT AUGUSTINE. 354-430.

xiv. 46.

When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday.1 Epistle 36. To Casulanus.

The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light, although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted." Works. Vol. iii. In Johannis Evangelum, c. tr. 5, Sect. 15.

ALI BEN ABI TALEB."

-660.

Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not;
In a single enemy thou hast more than enough.7

1 See Johnson, page 371.

8 See Chapman, page 37.

5 See Bacon, page 169.

6 Ali Ben Abi Taleb, son-in-law of Mahomet, and fourth caliph, who was for his courage called "The Lion of God," was murdered A. D. 660. He was the author of a "Hundred Sayings."

7 Translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and wrongly called by him a translation from Omar Khayyám.

Found in Dr. Hermann Tolowiez's "Polyglotte der Orientalischen Poesie."

Translated by James Russell Lowell thus:

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.

--1123.

OMAR KHAYYẨM.

(Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.)

I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
Rubaiyát. Stanza xix.

A Moment's Halt a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste
And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach'd

The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste!

Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,
And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire.

Stanza xlviii.

Stanza lxvii.

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit

Stanza lxxi.

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
And this I know: whether the one True Light
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
One Flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.
And when like her, O Sáki, you shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in your blissful errand reach the spot
Where I made One turn down an empty Glass.

Stanza lxxvii.

Stanza ci.

ALPHONSO THE WISE.

1221-1284.

Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.1

1 Carlyle says, in his "History of Frederick the Great," book ii. chap. vii. that this saying of Alphonso about Ptolemy's astronomy, that it seemed a crank machine; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice," is still remembered by mankind,· this and no other of his many sayings.

DANTE. 1265-1321.

(Carey's Translation.)

All hope abandon, ye who enter here.

Hell. Canto iii. Line 9.

The wretched souls of those who lived
Without or praise or blame.

No greater grief than to remember days
Of joy when misery is at hand.1

Line 34.

Canto v. Line 121.

1 See Longfellow, page 618.

2 But where is last year's snow? This was the greatest care that Villon,

the Parisian poet, took. - RABELAIS: book ii. chap. xiv.

MARTIN LUTHER. 1483-1546.

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing.

Psalm. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (trans. by
Frederic H. Hedge).

Tell your master that if there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its roofs, I would enter.1

Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen! Speech at the Diet of Worms. For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.2 Table-Talk. lxvii.

A faithful and good servant is a real godsend; but truly 't is a rare bird in the land.

clri.

FRANCIS RABELAIS. 1495-1553.

I am just going to leap into the dark.

Motteux's Life.

Let down the curtain: the farce is done.

Ibid.

He left a paper sealed up, wherein were found three articles as his last will: "I owe much; I have nothing; I give the rest to the poor."

One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span,
Because to laugh is proper to the man.

Ibid.

To the Reader.

1 On the 16th of April, 1521, Luther entered the imperial city [of Worms]. On his approach . . . the Elector's chancellor entreated him, in the name of his master, not to enter a town where his death was decided. The answer which Luther returned was simply this. — BUNSEN : Life of Luther.

I will go, though as many devils aim at me as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses. RANKE: History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 533 (Mrs. Austin's translation).

2 See Burton, page 192.

8 Je m'en vay chercher un grand peut-estre.