SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,

CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET.

1869.

(All rights reserved.)

BRITISH

29JA 70

MUSEUM

CHISWICK PRESS :---PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

REED awhile from the duties of an active professional life, and seeking rest after a severe

illness, it occurred to me to devote those long

tedious days which were then my own to making a manuscript collection of Latin Proverbs, intending it, when completed, as a book of reference for my own private use.

As I proceeded in the task my interest in the subject increased, and, impressed more and more with the value of an acquaintance with the proverbs of antiquity, I at length resolved to offer to others the result of my labours. After making considerable progress in the undertaking, I became aware that several compilations of Latin Proverbs and Quotations had been already published, and this, at first, made me waver a little in my project. A very little ex

2

amination, however, sufficed to show me that there was still
room for such a book as I had in contemplation. I ob-
served that the works before me, while containing a mass
of the same common and useful material, embraced a very
considerable number of extracts and quotations, which,
though beautiful in themselves, were not capable of appli-
cation to the every-day occurrences of life.

Then it struck me that the practical use of such a work
would be greatly enhanced by the introduction of English
Proverbs and Quotations of kindred meaning to illustrate
the Latin.

Lastly, the want of a good Index in the works which
came under my notice seemed a very serious deficiency.

With the view of supplying, in some degree, the require-
ments above referred to, I have ventured to publish the
present compilation.

To aim at anything original in a Book of Proverbs is
simply absurd, and the only merit which the author of such
a compilation can claim, is that of sheer labour and of
judgment in the selection of materials. I have not strictly
adhered to the literal rendering of the passages quoted.
On the contrary, wherever I thought a quotation would