The best plan is, as the common proverb has it, to

profit by the folly of others.1

Natural History. Book zeiii. Sect. 31. Always act in such a way as to secure the love of neighbour.2

your

Sect. 44.

It is a maxim universally agreed upon in agriculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that opportunities lost can never be regained.

The bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.

Ibid.

Sect. 249.

Let not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less share of our consideration. Book xiz. Sect. 59.

Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual?

--

Book xxviii. Sect. 23.

It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other, a practice which has now passed into a proverb. It was also a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by in his studio, while he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms. . . . Under these circumstances, they say that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one latchet too few. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks

1 See Publius Syrus, page 708.

2 A maxim of Cato.

8 See Shakespeare, page 46. Also Lover, page 583.

Numero deus impare gaudet (The god delights in odd numbers).— VIRGIL Ecloga, 8, 75.

--

ERASMUS.

4 Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit. The form generally quoted, "Nulla dies sine linea" (No day without a line), is not attested.

PLINY THE ELDER.- QUINTILIAN.

JUVENAL. 721

to his advice, began to criticise the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head out and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes,1-a piece of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.

Natural History. Book xxxv. Sect. 84.

QUINTILIAN. 42-118 A. D.

We give to necessity the praise of virtue."

Institutiones Oratoriæ. i. 8, 14.

A liar should have a good memory.

iv. 2, 91.

Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who

wake.

vi. 2, 30.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish."

x. 7, 21.

JUVENAL. 47-138 A. D.

No man ever became extremely wicked all at once."

Satire ii. 83.

Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher, physician; fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjuror,-he knew everything."

Nobility is the one only virtue.

8

iii. 76.

viii. 20.

1 Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret (Let not a shoemaker judge above his

shoe).

2 See Chaucer, page 3.

4 See Prior, page 288.

See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 197.

8 See Percy, page 406.

See Sidney, page 264.

5 See Pope, page 332.

7 See Dryden, page 268.

MARTIAL. 40-102 A. D.

I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; this only I can say, I do not love thee.1

Epigram i. 32.

The good man prolongs his life; to be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.2

z. 23, 7.

The bee enclosed and through the amber shown
Seems buried in the juice which was his own.

Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day.

Book ir. 32

z. 47, 13.

PLUTARCH. 46 (?)-120 (?)A. D.

(From Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Lives, corrected and
revised by A. H. Clough.)

As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.5

Life of Theseus. From Themistocles began the saying, "He is a second Hercules."

Ibid.

The most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies cut of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud. Life of Romulus.

Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me."

1 See Brown, page 286.

Life of Solon

8 See Bacon, page 168.

2 See Pope, page 336.
4 See Milton, page 240.

6 See Swift, page 289.

use

Themistocles said that he certainly could not make of any stringed instrument; could only, were a small and obscure city put into his hands, make it great and glorious.

Life of Themistocles. Eury biades lifting up his staff as if he were going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike, if you will; but hear." 1

Ibid.

Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson."

Ibid.

Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother.” 2

Ibid.

"You speak truth," said Themistocles; "I should never have been famous if I had been of Seriphus; nor you, had you been of Athens."

Ibid.

Themistocles said that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost."

Ibid.

1 “Strike,” said he, "but hear me." - Apophegthms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Themistocles.)

2 Diophantus, the young son of Themistocles, made his boast often and in many companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens; for whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked, Themistocles liked; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians liked. — Of the Training of Children.

When the son of Themistocles was a little saucy toward his mother, he said that this boy had more power than all the Grecians; for the Athenians governed Greece, he the Athenians, his wife him, and his son his wife. — Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Themistocles.)

3 An obscure island.

Themistocles said speech was like to tapestry; and like it, when it was spread it showed its figures, but when it was folded up, hid and spoiled Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. (Themistocles.)

them.

When he was in great prosperity, and courted by many, seeing himself splendidly served at his table, he turned to his children and said: "Children, we had been undone, if we had not been undone." Life of Themistocies.

Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it inspires an impulse to practise.

Life of Pericles For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.1

Ibid.

So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.

Be ruled by time, the wisest counsellor of all.

Ibid

Ibid.

To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.

Life of Fabius.

Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable: "It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister to its appetites." Life of Coriolanus, Knowledge of divine things for the most part, as Heraclitus says, is lost to us by incredulity.

Ibid.

A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, "Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful?" holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. "Yet," added he, "none of you can tell where it pinches me." Life of Emilius Paulus.

The saying of old Antigonus, who when he was to fight at Andros, and one told him, "The enemy's ships

1 See Chaucer, page 3.