Much straw, but little grain. With much labour I have obtained but small profit; or, from a long and laboured discourse, but little information. Assai romor et poco lana. Great cry but little wool, as the devil said when he sheared his hogs. This adage takes it rise from a scene in one of the Misteries, a kind of dramatic amusement very popular before the use of plays; in which the devil is introduced shearing one of those animals, which continued making a most frightful noise during the operation, to the great diversion of the audience.

The horse is not the progeny of the slow paced ass, the sheep of the lion. We do not easily believe a dull and stupid man to be the son of an acute, sensible and ingenious parent; a coward, of a brave and spirited, or a debauched and worthless man, to be the progeny of a good and worthy sire; and yet these anomalies not unfrequently occur.

I had rather buy what I want, than ask anyone for it. To an ingenuous mind, it is a hard thing to be obliged to say, I beg he had rather purchase what he stands in need of, with his own money, or if he has not money, with the labour of his own hands. «Neque enim levi mercede emit, qui precatur», he pays no small price for a favour, who buys it by intreaties. «If I had money», Socrates said, «I would this morning have bought myself a coat». Though the money was immediately supplied by his friend, yet it came, Seneca observes, too late. It was a shame that such a man should have been reduced to the necessity of asking for it.

Using the same argument or discourse to persons of different ages, dispositions, and faculties, is as if a physician should apply the same remedy in the cure of various and dissimilar diseases.

A caval donato non guardar in bocca. It. A cheval donné, il ne faut pas regarder aux dens. Fr. We must not look a gift-horse in the mouth. Presents are not to be esteemed by their costliness, but by the intention of the donor. «Aliquando gratius est quod facili, quam quod plena manu datur», what is given freely and without solicitation, is more acceptable than a more valuable and expensive present, that was not obtained without great entreaty.

Even my dart has also a point, and is capable of inflicting a wound, though it may not pierce so deep as yours. I would willingly avoid contest, but if you will continue to molest me, I will not suffer alone, but will take care you shall feel a part of the evil. Agreeably to this sentiment also, is the Scottish Order of the Thistle, framed, with its motto: «Nemo me impune lacessit».

In Rome, if a very improbable tale was told, it was usual to say, «I would not believe it, even though Cato himself should tell it me», thus shewing the reverence paid to the memory of that great statesman and philosopher. The Athenians, who had the same confidence in the integrity of Aristides as the Romans had in Cato, used his name on such occasions. We more commonly say, though an angel should affirm it we would not believe it.

Listen to him who has four ears. It is not known what gave birth to this adage, but it is understood, as advising to attend to old and experienced persons, who are slow in judging, who are more ready to hear than to speak; or, as the English proverb has it, «who have wide ears and short tongues».

«He that hears much, and speaks not at all,
Shall be welcome in parlour, in kitchen and hall».

«Oi, voye, et te taise,
Si tu veux vivre en pais».


That is, if you wish to live quietly, hear, see, and be silent; which is taken probably from the following monkish line. "Audi, vide, tace, si vis vivere in pace." A similar sense has, "prospectandum vetulo latrante cane," when the old dog barks, or opens, then attend.

You have explained that difficult passage, and rendered clear and luminous, what was before obscure and difficult.

From one act, or circumstance, you will readily judge what is the real character or disposition of the man. This may to a certain degree be admitted as a test; as, if a man be detected in any deliberate act of villany, where there has been an evident design to defraud or injure another, we may without hesitation pronounce the party to be a bad man: but the converse of this, may not be so surely depended on, and we may not with safety, from one single act of charity, or kindness, pronounce the party to be a good man, or trust him as much. So also, if a man from walking over Bagshot Heath, should take upon him to determine the state of this country, as to its fertility, and should describe it as in general barren and inhospitable, or from being deceived by an individual, with whom he had been engaged in business, should determine that the inhabitants are faithless, and not to be trusted, it is evident, that in both cases, he would be found to have passed a rash and precipitate judgment.

I warrant he will make something of it, he would get meal even from a statue, nor is there any thing so mean and worthless, but he will reap some profit from it. But the adage was more usually applied to princes, and governors, exacting large tributes from poor, and almost desolate places, or obliging the inhabitants of their principal cities to pay such immense sums as to reduce the most wealthy and prosperous of them, to beggary. Of both these, we have now abundant instances in the conduct of Buonaparte and his myrmidons. It was also applied, Erasmus says, to covetous priests, «apud quos ne sepulchrum quidem gratis conceclitur», who extracted profit even from funerals; but these dues are now usually paid readily enough, either out of respect to the deceased, or from the consoling consideration that it will be the last cost the survivor will be put to on their account.

Ill luck is good for something. From a small evil, to extract a considerable advantage, is the property of a sound and prudent mind. It is next to profiting by the errors and mischances of others, to take warning by some check we may meet with in our progress, and thence to alter our course. El hombre mancebo, perdiendo gana seso, a young man by losing, gains knowledge. If persons, who are living more expensively than their income permits, would be wanted by the first difficulty or disgrace they suffer, and would institute modes of living more suitable to their circumstances, they would soon recover what by their improvidence they had wasted. But pride, a fear of shewing to their companions they are not so wealthy as they had boasted, or had appeared to be, prevents their following this salutary counsel, and they go on until their fall becomes inevitable. «Si quid feceris honestum cum labore, labor abit, honestum manet. Si quid feceris turpe cum voluptate, voluptas abit, turpitude manet» which may be thus rendered: if by labour and difficulty you have procured to yourself an advantage, the benefit will remain, when the labour with which it was acquired will be forgotten. But if in pursuit of pleasure you have degraded yourself, the disgrace will remain, while no traces of the pleasure will be retained in your memory.

You have been fortunate in getting out of that difficulty, or that you did not engage in a business, which, however promising it might appear, could not but have involved you in much trouble. Literally it means, in drawing your feet out of the mud.

Beyond bow-shot, or the reach of darts. Out of harm's way. Out of debt, out of danger. Be concerned in no disputes, and neither say nor do any thing of which an advantage may be taken, is the direction of prudence; but from the mixed nature of human affairs, not to be completely followed, but by those who live only for themselves. Let those, however, who neglect this caution be sure that they have resolution enough to bear, or strength sufficient to overcome the difficulties they may have brought upon themselves by their imprudence. Socrates being asked, who was the wisest man, answered he who offends the least.