It is fishing in the air, or hunting in the sea, may be said to persons attempting things perfectly incompatible; as if those should expect to enjoy a perfectly retired and quiet life, who are engaged in any public offices or business; or happiness, while eagerly employed in the pursuit of sensual pleasure; or contentment, while anxiously intent on increasing their wealth which will be much more likely to add to their cares than to their comfort.

Do not wear the figure or image of the Deity in a ring: that is, do not introduce the name of the Deity in your frivolous and idle conversation, or call upon him to attest the truth of any assertions, except such as are of a grave and serious nature; still less make it the subject of your senseless and impertinent oaths.

Threatening those whom you cannot hurt, but whose anger may be highly prejudicial to yourself, is like hurling your dart against the heavens, which it cannot reach, but it may wound you in its return. Chi piscia contra il vento, si bagna la camiscia, and Quien al cielo escupe, en la cara le cae, who casts his spittle against the heavens, will receive it back on his face.

Leaning on a broken staff, which cannot support you, or on a bruised reed which will pierce your hand and wound you; literally upon a weak and tottering wall; metaphorically, trusting to a false friend who will betray you, or to one who is incapable of performing what he promises, or of furnishing the assistance which he undertook to afford you.

Do not thrust your hand into the fire. Whv should you embroil yourself in a contention in which you have no concern? why put yourself into hot water; know you not, that

Those who in quarrels interpose
Must often wipe a bloody nose?

De los ruydos guarte, no seras testigo ni parte, keep clear from broils, either as witness or party.

It is good to keep up our spirits under misfortunes and to use our endeavours to mitigate or remove them, or if that cannot be done to bear them with patience, which will of itself, in time, make them more tolerable and easy; as is expressed in the following, Fortitur ferendo vincitur malum quod evitare non potest, and by the English adage, what can't be cured, must be endured, or of a bad bargain we should make the best,

«Of all those sorrows that attend mankind,
With patience bear the lot to thee assign'd;
Nor think it chance, nor murmur at the load;
For know, what man calls fortune, is from God».

Matar dos paxeros con una piedra, killing two birds with one stone; I have fortunately met with more persons, whom I wished to see, or done more business in this excursion, than I expected.

Sparta is the most convenient residence for aged persons; age being in a peculiar manner respected and honoured in that country. The following story from Valerius Maximus will illustrate this position. It is here given from the sixth Number of the Spectator. «It happened at Athens, during the representation of a play, that an old gentleman came too late for a place, suitable to his age and quality. Many of the young men, who observed the confusion he was in, made signs to him, that they would accommodate him, if he came where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly, but when he came to the seat to which he was invited, the jest was to sit close and expose him, as he stood, out of countenance, to the audience. The frolic went round the Athenian benches; when the good man skulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedemonians, that honest people rose up to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians being suddenly touched with a sense of the Spartan virtue, and their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applause; and the old man cried out, «The Athenians understand what is right, but the Lacedemonians practise it»». So the poet,

«Credebant hoc grande nefas et morte piandum,
Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerit», &c.

The ship has escaped the threatened danger and is arrived safely in port. The adage is applied to any one who has overcome some difficulty, with which he had been oppressed; and from which there seemed little chance of his being able to escape.

An enemy and an envious person is an eye over his neighbour, watching narrowly into his conduct; but if known to be so, he may be highly useful to him by putting him on his guard: knowing he is watched by one who is disposed to put the worst construction upon his actions, he will be so cautious, as to give him as little opportunity as possible of doing him an injury: he, therefore, may be said also to afford an additional eye to his neighbour; which is the more direct meaning of the adage.

Injuries that are slighted and suffered to pass unnoticed, are soon forgotten; by resenting them, unless you are able to punish the agressor, you acknowledge yourself to be hurt, and so afford a triumph to the person who gave the affront. «Deridet, sed non derideor», he laugheth, but I am not laughed at. The wise man passeth by an injury, but anger resteth in the bosom of a fool.

I am between the hammer and the anvil, I am so surrounded with evils, that I see no way of escaping, may be said by anyone who has so involved and entangled himself in a business, that he must be a loser, whether he goes on or retreats.

Among children or young persons he may be looked upon as old or intelligent, but among elderly people he is considered as young. This was used to be said of persons of specious or imposing manners, who wished to appear more learned or wise than on trial they were found to be. A doctor among fools, and a fool among doctors, is, I think, the phrase by which we designate such characters.

Cutting against the grain. When anyone attempts what he is totally unqualified for, he may be said to, be labouring without the assistance of Minerva, the reputed goddess of wisdom, natura repugnante, against nature. «Quam quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat», let everyone confine himself to the art in which he has been instructed, or Which he has particularly studied. En casa del moro no hables algaravia. Do not speak Arabic in the house of a Moor, lest, instead of gaining credit, you only expose your ignorance.