Court incense. The splendid promises of courtiers, like the odoriferous vapour of frankincense, please the senses for a time, but they are both of them light and volatile, and leave ho beneficial effects behind them.

The mother of the coward does not weep, that is, does not often lament the untimely death of her son, or that he has met with any sinister accident, as he will be careful to keep out of the way of danger, which the brave and courageous is continually affronting, and so falls early.

Timid persons and such as are not possessed of personal courage, must not expect to be honoured with a triumph, which is only accorded to those who have by their valour obtained some signal victory. "Qui a peur de feuilles ne doit aller au bois," "he that is afraid of leaves, must not go into a wood". Persons of timid dispositions should not engage in hazardous undertakings, or attempt what can only be achieved by courage and prowess; "al hombre osado, la fortuna da la mano," "fortune favours the bold," "faint heart never won fair lady," and "none but the brave deserve the fair!"

As fearful as Plutus, the reputed god of riches. The poor having nothing to lose, have no dread of thieves, and accustomed to feed on coarse diet, they find little difficulty in getting what is necessary for their support. In utramque dormiant aurem, they can sleep on either ear, in any posture, or on the hardest couch. The rich, on the contrary, are full of care, trouble, and anxiety. «Non solum cruciantur libidine augendi ea quae habent, sed etiam timore amittendi ea», they are not only tormented with an incessant desire of increasing their wealth, but with the fear of losing that which they possess. They believe that all with whom they have any commerce, are contriving to rob, or cheat them. They are afraid of their friends, lest they should want to borrow of them; they think their servants are false, and that their wives and children are combining to deceive, and cozen them. Their fears increasing with their years, at length, though abounding with riches, they are distressed with apprehensions of impending poverty, imagining they shall become beggars or die in a workhouse. In hunc scopulum cadaverosi senes ut plurimum impingunt, on this rock cadaverous old men, men on the verge of the grave, are for the most part wrecked, and indeed it is not until they arrive at that period, when their wants might be supplied by the smallest income, that their fears make them imagine that their immense possessions will be exhausted, before their glass shall be completely run out, and they perish miserably by the very means that, properly used, would have preserved them in health and spirits.

Assist those who are willing to receive instruction, and aid those who endeavour, but bave not strength, to bear the load that is imposed on them. First put thy shoulder to the wheel, and should thy utmost exertions prove ineffectual, then call upon the Gods, and they will help thee. "But they're not wishings, or base womanish prayers Can draw their aid, but vigilance, counsel, action, Which they will be ashamed to forsake. Tis sloth they hate, and cowardice." " A quien madruga, Dios le ayouda,'" the Spaniards say, God assists those who rise early in the morning, that is, those who are industrious; and the French to the same purport " Aide toi et Dieu t'aidera," help yourself and God will help you. "Industry," we say, " is Fortune's right hand, and frugality her left."

"To shoot beyond the mark," to be entirely out in our conjecture, or opinion, on any business; to mistake the meaning of any passage in a work, or of what had been said; were typified by the ancients by this and similar phrases, meaning, You are as far from the right, as the east is from the west.

Like a top which is always turning round and changing its situation. The adage may be applied to persons of versatile dispositions, who have no fixed design, or intention, they will now be parsons, lawyers, soldiers; or as Andrew Borde describes our countrymen,

«I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,
Musing in my mind, what raiment I shall wear;
For now I will wear this, and now I will wear that,
And now I will wear, I cannot tell what».

Borde lived in the early part of the sixteenth century; we are now doubtless changed, and become more steady. There are many other apothegms censuring this mutability of disposition, from which the following only is taken.

When your neighbour's house is on fire, it is time to look to your own. When you hear your neighbour traduced, and his character blackened, you will defend him even from a regard to yourself, as you may expect the same liberty to be taken with yours, when you shall be absent. Turn the mischances of others to your own benefit; that is, learn from the failure and misfortunes of others, to attend to your own concerns, that you may not suffer the same disgrace.

I will paint you in your proper colours, that is, I will describe you as you are, that your friends may see with what sort of man they have to do: with us, the expression is always used in a bad sense.

"The Thrush when he defiles the bough, Sows for himself the seeds of woe." Men of over communicative dispositions, who divulge what may by their adversaries be turned to their disadvantage, may be compared to the thrush, who is said to sow, with his excrements, the seeds of the misletoe on which it feeds. From the bark of the misletoe bird-lime is made, with which the thrush, as well as other birds, are not unfrequently taken. The eagle that had been shot, was doubly distressed on discerning that the arrow which inflicted the wound, was winged with a feather of his own.

It is disgraceful to be silent. When a man is conscious that he is capable of instructing his fellow-citizens, or those with whom he is connected, in any art that might be beneficial to them, it is disgraceful, or perhaps criminal, to withhold it.

«Be niggards of advice on no pretence,
For the worst avarice is that of sense».

It may also be said by any one, who should find others not so well qualified as himself, acquiring honour by the practice of any art or profession, I must now exert myself, and shew these men, that it was not through incapacity, that I have hitherto abstained, «It would be disgraceful to be any longer silent», and to a circumstance of this kind, the adage is said to have owed its origin.

May be said to any one pretending an intimate acquaintance with the private concerns of another; and I will tell you the subject of your last night's dream.

Where there are friends, there is wealth, or, in the usual acceptation of the proverb, it is better to have friends without money, than money without friends. "Aquelles son ricos que tienen amigos," they are rich who have friends. To be possessed of friends, is doubtless valuable, as they may stand us in stead in our troubles; but in the ordinary occurrences of life, money may be depended on with more certainty, as it will purchase us both conveniences and friends. "Las necedades del rico, por sentencias passan en el mundo," even the foolish sayings of the rich, pass in the world as oracles. We may therefore more truly say, "Ubi opes, ibi amici," he that has wealth has friends; "Vulgus amicitias utilitate probat," for friends are commonly esteemed only in proportion to the advantages they are able to procure us. "Hood an ass with reverend purple, So you can hide his two ambitious ears, And he shall pass for a cathedral doctor." (Volpone)

We should be cautious of attempting what we have not ability to accomplish. A little wariness, prevents great weariness. The adage was used by Paris to Hector, advising him against a personal conflict with Achilles, and it had been well if he had attended to the admonition, as he lost his life in the contest. It is not, however, on all occasions to be followed, as without trial it is not always easy to know how far our ability or power extends; and where a great object is proposed, it is not to be neglected from an apprehension, inspired, perhaps, by timidity of its failing. In magnis et voluisse sat est, it is honourable even to have attempted a great and noble act; that is, if the attempt has been persevered in with becoming spirit, and the failure, if it should not succeed, has not been owing to negligence. We may oppose to this adage, Nothing venture, nothing have.

The owl was a favoured bird among the Athenians, and so abounded, that sending owls to Athens, was like "carrying water to the sea," or, "coals to Newcastle." It was, according to the Spanish phrase, "Vender miel al Colmenaro," offering honey to one who had bee-hives; "Croesi pecuniae ter unciam addere," or adding a farthing to the wealth of Croesus, esteemed in his time, the richest monarch in the world. The adage is also applicable to persons telling as news what is generally known, or offering to instruct anyone in arts, with which he is well acquainted. Making presents to the rich, and neglecting friends or relations, to whom such assistance might be beneficial, are acts falling also under the censure of this proverb.

Persons were said to be up to the elbows in the sea and striving with them against the waves, who were contending with difficulties which threatened to overwhelm them. A similar phrase is used by us, speaking of persons who have more than sufficient employment, he has his hands full, we say, or he is up to the elbows in business.

Oignez vilain il vous poindra,
Poignez vilain il vous oindra

If you treat a clown with mildness and civility he will fancy you are afraid of him, and will return your kindness with rudeness or insult; but if preserving your dignity, you treat him as your inferior or with some degree of authority, he will crouch to and fawn upon you:

« A base unthankful clownish brood,
Return ill offices for good,
But if you should them harshly treat,
Then spaniel-like they'll lick your feet».

El ruyn, mientras mas le ruegan, mas se estiende, a low and base man, the more you entreat him, the more insolent he becomes.

A friend even to the altar, that is, who will do every thing that is not offensive to good morals, or that will not oblige him to a breach of his duty to God, to his family, or neighbours. Such was the answer of Pericles to a friend, who had required of him in a certain cause to give a false testimony. He was not unmindful of his obligation to his friend, but he dared not violate his duty to the gods. It was the custom anciently for persons taking an oath, to lay one of their hands on the altar, whence the adage.
The following, from Beloe's translation of Aulus Aulus Gellius, places the character of Chilo, the Lacedemonian, in so pleasing a light, that I am induced to lay it before the reader. It has also some reference to the adage before us. When death was approaching, he thus spake to his surrounding friends: «That there is very little of all that I have said and done in the course of a long life, which has given me cause of repentance, ye may, perhaps, well know. At this period, I certainly do not delude myself when I say, that I have never done any thing, the remembrance of which gives me uneasiness, one incident alone excepted. I was once a judge with two others, on the life of a friend. The law was such as to require his condemnation. Either, therefore, a friend was to be lost by a capital punishment, or the law was to be evaded. In this case, I silently gave my own vote for his condemnation, but I persuaded my fellow judges to acquit him. Thus I neither violated the duty of the friend, nor of the judge. But the fact gives me this uneasiness; I fear that it was both perfidious and criminal, to persuade others to do that, which in my own judgment was not right».

Use, or custom, is a second nature. It is of importance, therefore, in the education of children, to prevent their acquiring habits that are ungraceful or vicious; as whatever watchfulness or care may be afterwards used, it will be almost impossible to dispossess them.

He loves him as the wolf loves the sheep; or, «as the devil loves holy water». This may be said of any one pretending a regard for the interest of a person whom he is endeavouring to undermine and would destroy.