Show ORIGIN OF PROVERBS I 1 among the many ways in which wisdom manifests itself there Is ie probably no form she assumes so acceptable cep table to the world as aa when she comes to us it in the garb of proverbs reading beading and observation make some impression on minds of any caliber but the most lasting and popular form of wisdom and learning and practical philosophy is the proverb it is true the coiner may not in fact seldom does become known but he be enjoys the nameless pleasure at finding himself handed down to fame that to is not vouchsafed to the most famous orator poet or essayist to accurately define anything ih difficult but especially is this true of 0 a proverb some define proverbs as wisdom in brief aristotle says of proverbs they are rena remnants nants which on account of their and correctness have been saved out of the wreck and ruin of ancient philosophy while agricola declares them to be short sentences into which as in rules the ancients have compressed life this last seems to be both forcible and pretty thomas fuller has quaintly cie defined them as much matter decocted decoct ed into few words and james lowell howell in his louden london edition of proverbs old sayed bayed saws and adages 9 published in 1659 calls them a great deal of weight wrape up in little from which came our modern precious articles always come iu small packages pacu ages 11 it is possible that the latin and greek proverbs may owe a debt we know not or of to outside sources sacred and pro profane faue notwithstanding it is not so much to am sacred red sources or to solomon as to classic writers that we must look for light in trac ing the genealogy of modern proverbs the greek language was the key to all international antt intercourse from the establishment of the macedonian empire it became the vehicle through which in the septuagint the old testament found its greatest proof of having been regarded by all nations adjacent to thie the hebrews aa being divine and it was the language of the new testament att Y t this language un has preserved to us a far larger proportion of proverbs than has the egyptian persian indian or hebrew the original language of the old testament and the the question is but natural bow do we know that many of the old testament proverbs were not originally frona from the greek writers and some 0 so far SUB as to assert that christ 0 1 rew largely on greek classics for his provert proverbial lial sayings thus an old greek proverb has it ca c a scorpion for a perch and christ asks if a son ask broad bread will he give iva him a stone or if he ask a ash ansh will he give him a ser serpent ut and ADU the ascended savior addressed addressed saul of tarsus in an adage familiar to all the world unless it were the jews from the odes of pindar the tragedies of aeschylus Esc hylus and euripides and from the latib comic poets it is hard for thee to kick against the goads f this referred to the ref refractory oxen kicking and hitting their legs against the sharp goads used to drive them and thus hurting themselves all the more thus also hasan haan adage about washing the white and the prophet in the old testament asks can an ethiopian change his skin the spanish has bas it the bath bath not to fco make a negro white while the french put it wash a coq dog comb a dog still a dog is but a dog I 1 and our modern proverb preserves the idea in theres no getting white flour out of a coal sack 11 our modern set a thief to catch a thief is found in zenobius i 1 70 aitto to play the fox to another fox but those proverbs from the greek which are now common COMMOD to all nations will be most interesting sonae have la Ia Lored others profited Is I 1 found in some form in almost every language of the earth it is as old as hesion who in his I 1 applies it to the bees and drones callimachos Jalli Calli machus the aban al xan drian poet BC wrote I 1 and those who plowed the field shall reap the corn as if he be would shadow forth a rectification of the universal injustice set forth in the proverb the french and spanish have it one ne man beats asto the bush and another catches he bird and the italians put it one man star teth the game and another kills it in the new testament it is recognized recognize d by the savior thus herein is that saying true I 1 one howeth and a ad the other rea peth 1 11 also it is set forth in galatians Galat lans vi 7 and in it II corinthians ix 6 when a man was seen rushing into fascinating but certain ruin the greeks likened his to the moths enoth s fate and sudden destruction was pictured as destructions t wing 11 a phrase that beautifully ends a striking lino line in marmion Marm iou and of a thin man whose Ie leanness seemed incurable they imagined im dined as drawn through a ring or its as much use to try and fatten a whetstone hence our modern phrase in an attempt of some one to be original As fat as a match our modern friends like your shadow are only seen peen in the sunshine is traced to Men Mon auders when a mans in trouble friends s tand aloof early english had it translated by erasmus boll boil pot boil friendship il from this it is easy to infer we get another common proverb the way to a malis amaus heart is through his stomach made so forcible by de quincey every one has repeated at some time or other A burnt child dreads the fire sophocles sophocles says it sprang from a fisherman who in his over anxiety to see what he bad in his bis net was stung by a scorpion and ex pla ined now that im stung 1 I shall be wiser and chapman renders a passage from homer A fool knows naught before tie done and still too late Js is wise the spaniards have it A scalded cat dreads cold water and also he who Is ie bit by a scorpion is alarmed at its shadow burton gives us this from his language he whom a serpent has bitten dreads a slow worm a harmless reptile rep tilo from this it will be seen we get another modern proverb experience is a dear school but fools will learn 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