There is need of parsley here, was used to be said when any one was affected with a disease, for which there was no known remedy, and which would soon extinguish his life; alluding to the custom of scattering parsley over their graves, which was the ancient custom among the Grecians. They were also used to crown those who were conquerors in the Isthmian games, with this herb.

Weaving of cobwebs, which persons are said to do, who waste their time and money in frivolous pursuits; in procuring what will be of no use when obtained; in collecting butterflies, cockle-shells, etc. «et stultus labor est ineptiarum», and such like fooleries. Laws also, which by the great are easily evaded, and which seem only made entrap the poor, are, by common consent, called cobweb contrivances. They were so called by Anarcharis. «They catch», he said, «small flies, but wasps and hornets break them with impunity». «Hence little villains oft submit to fate, That great ones may enjoy the world in state».

Do not wear a ring, or a shoe, we say, that is too tight, which may impede you in walking, or in any other actions. Metaphorically, do not by imprudence waste your property, and contract debts, which will lead to the loss of your liberty; neither pay so much deference to the opinions of others, as to embrace them implicitly, without first submitting them to a careful examination. Persons who are so tractable are said to be led by the nose, and of such, artful men do not fail to take advantage. Also, be not ready to bind yourselves by vows, or oaths, to do, or to refrain from any act. If the thing be proper in itself, you will have sufficient incentive to do it, without laying such obligations or restrictions upon yourself; the necessity for which can only arise from imbecility, or inconstancy of mind, which you should rather endeavor to cure than to indulge.

Teaching an ass to obey the rein, which the ancients thought to be nearly as difficult as to wash a blackamoor white, or to do any other impossible thing, «Labour in vain». Though I think it is not now found to be so difficult, and those animals are made to serve for many useful purposes. The adage is used by Horace, and with much elegance, in his first Satire.
«At si cognatos nullo natura labore
Quos tibi dat, retinere velis, servareque amicos;
Infelix operam perdas; ut si quis asellum
In campo doceat parentem currere frœnis».
But if you expect to obtain the affection of your relations, or to preserve the esteem of your friends, without making any return for their kindness, you will find yourself, wretch that you are, miserably deceived, as he would be, who should attempt to reach an ass to be obedient to the rein.

More crafty than the cuckoo. The cuckoo is never at the pains of building a nest, but having found one belonging to some other bird, fit for her purpose, she throws out the eggs she finds in it, and deposits her own in their place. The owner of the nest, not perceiving the fraud, hatches the cuckoo's egg, and nurtures the young one, thus freeing its mother from all care for her offspring. The cuckoo is a bird of passage; it appears in this country in the month of April, and leaves it in June. The female lays only a single egg, usually in the nest of the hedge-sparrow, as we learn from the following distich.

«The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long,
That she had her head bit off by her young».
(Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4)

Athos covers with its shade the Lemnian ox. The adage was used to be applied to any one injuring the character, or obscuring the fame of another. In the island of Lemnos, there was formerly the statue of an Ox, of an immense size. This, however, did not prevent its being obscured by the shadow of Mount Athos, which, though at a great distance, extended itself over a large portion of the island.

Against money or a bribe, reason or eloquence are of little avail, an apothegm no where more known or acknowledged than in this country, where, according to a saying imputed to Sir Robert Walpole, every man has its price. L' argento è un buon passeporto, money is a good passport, and Quien dinero tiene, haze lo que quiere, he who has money has friends, fame, and whatever he pleases: we are not therefore single in the homage we pay to it, and money, we say, is welcome every where. Ovid also long since, addressing himself to it, said

–––«Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames».

What atrocities will not the cursed thirst after gold impel men to commit!

Listen and consider. Hear what is said to you, and weigh it in your mind, before you give your opinion. Or it may be said by a person speaking, «Listen attentively to what I am about to relate, you will find it deserving your serious consideration».

A man should either be born a king or an idiot, he should be at the top, or at the bottom of the wheel of fortune; at the least, there are men so ambitious, of such high and daring spirits, that they will venture every thing, their fortunes, and their lives, to attain to the highest rank in their country. They will be, «aut Caesar, aut nullus», either kings or beggars. O rico, o pinjada, rich, or hanged, neck, or nothing. Milton makes Lucifer say,
«To reign is worth ambition, though in hell.
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven».
But the adage seems to have a special reference to the respect usually paid to idiots. In Turkey, and in other parts of the east, they were held in such veneration, that it was thought to be no less than a sin to oppose, or control them in anything they were disposed to do. They had therefore equal liberty with kings, who say and do whatever they please. To a late period, it was usual with the nobles, in this, as well as in other countries of Europe, to entertain in their houses a fool, for their diversion, who often took the liberty of reproving their masters for their follies, and in much freer language than any other persons were permitted to use. When Jaques, in As you like it, proposed putting on a fool's coat, he says, «[...]I must have liberty Withal, as large a charter as the wind, To blow on whom I please; for so fools have». May it be added, what is currently said, Fools are fortunate. They also may be said to be happy, as they neither anticipate evil, nor even feel the full pressure of it when present. Dieu aide à trois sortes de personnes, aux fous, aux enfans, et aux ivrognes. God protects three sorts of persons, fools, infants, and drunkards, the latter rarely falling, it is said, into any danger, even when full of drink. The French also say, Tete de fou ne blanchit jamais, the head of the fool never becomes grey, which is probably not better founded than the former observation.

The covetous man begins to be considered with complacence when he ceases to exist, or never does well until he dies; they are like swine, «which are never good until they come to the knife». The prodigal who dissipates his fortune by living voluptuously, easily conciliates to himself the friendship or kindness of the persons with whom he associates; he contributes to the support of those who furnish him with the means of enjoying his diversions and amusements; he shares his fortune with his friends, his servants, and his dependants: he is therefore usually spoken of with complacency. «He is a generous, liberal, open-hearted fellow, and no one's enemy but his own»; and when his fall is completed, even those who suffer mingle some regret for his misfortune, with the concern they feel for their own loss. But the covetous man neither meets with, nor is entitled to the same consideration from the world: even the most harmless of them, those who either came to their fortune by inheritance, or who have acquired it by fair dealing, as they use it exclusively for their own benefit, are hardly looked on as forming a part of the community in which they live; no one interests himself in their welfare; their success is not congratulated, nor their losses commiserated. The prodigal robs his heir, the miser himself.

«When all other sins are old in us, and go upon crutches,
Covetousness does but then lay in her cradle.
Lechery loves to dwell in the fairest lodgings,
And covetousness in the oldest buildings».