It is stealing sand from the sea shore, may be said to persons taking home with them, and prizing things of no value, and which are neglected and daily trodden under our feet.

Ayez le Francois pour ton ami, non pas pour ton voisin, have the French for your friend, not for your neighbour. But at this time, viz. 1812, it is as dangerous to have them for friends, as for neighbours, nothing being more fatal than to have the honour of being numbered among their associates, or allies, as under that title or pretence, they will take upon them the entire management of your country. The Apennines have not been found a sufficient barrier, to prevent their fraternising (a term they have adopted) with the Spaniards. In 1809, they invited the king of Spain, and his son, to their camp, pitched on the borders of the country, to adjust, as they pretended, some matters of difference between them, but, possessed of their persons, they transported them to the interior of France, where they have been detained ever since. In the mean while they have been carrying on a destructive war in Spain, treating the inhabitants who resisted them as rebels, and obliging many thousands of them to enter into their armies, and to fight for them in far distant countries. They have likewise given to Spain, as king, one of the brothers of Buonaparte, the present governor, or emperor, as he has forced the world to acknowledge him, of the French. The Spaniards, aided by the forces of this country, are making a vigorous opposition to them, and may they in the end be successful in driving them from their territories! An event, which is rather to be hoped than expected.

Cada gallo canta en su muladar, every cock will crow on his own dunghill. Every man finds himself courageous in his own house where he is surrounded by his family and friends, who will not suffer him to be oppressed. «As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a friend his neighbour».

By the constant trickling of water, the solid stone becomes excavated. This should encourage us to perseverance in industry, to which few things are impossible. Madruga y verás, trabaja y avrás, rise betimes and you will see, labour assiduously and you will have.
«Oft little add to little, and the amount
Will swell, heaped atoms thus produce a mount».

Even a fly has its sting, and a worm if trodden upon will turn, and make an effort to avenge the injury: we should therefore not despise an enemy however weak and insignificant, or want only offend any one; there being few persons but who may, at some time, have it in their power to do us an injury, or who may not in some way be useful to us. Socrates determined him to be the wisest man, who gave the least offence.

Sowing your grain among stones, where they cannot take root, in the water, or on sand. «In aqua scribis, in harena ædificas», writing on water, or building on sand, with many others, are phrases used by the Romans, and are applicable to persons bestowing much labour in effecting what is impossible to be done, or heaping favours upon an ungrateful person, from whom no return can be expected. «Can the Æthiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots».

Take not a swallow under your roof, he only pays his visit in the spring, but when winter, the time of difficulty and hardships, approaches, he is gone. Entertain no one as a friend who seeks only his own advantage by the intimacy he solicits. The proverb is also supposed to intimate that we should not admit chatterers to a familiarity with us, who will be sure to divulge whatsoever they may see or hear in our houses. «Percontatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est». The swallow only comes, it is said, for his own purpose, and having produced and brought up its young, leaves us, without making any beneficial return for the entertainment it has received. Though it is probable that by devouring myriads of insects, which would have destroyed our fruit, they pay us abundantly for the subsistence afforded them.

Nothing has succeeded, or prospered with me this day. This, many among the common people were apt to suppose, proceeded not from their having omitted some necessary caution, but from their having begun the work on an unlucky day; and there are now, as there were formerly, persons who esteem certain days to be unfortunate in which no new business should be attempted.

Tall men are rarely found to be wise. The Spaniards say, El grande de cuerpo, no es muy hombre. That is, the robust man is rarely a great man; and the Scotch, fat paunches bode lean pates. Livy seems also to patronise the opinion, «men of great stature and bulk», he says, «appear more formidable, than they are found to be on trial». His observation, however, may be supposed to relate rather to their courage or bodily strength, than to their genius or understanding. «Sir Francis Bacon being asked by King Jamnes, what he thought of the French ambassador; he answered, that he was a tall proper man. I, his Majesty replied, but what think you of his head-piece? is he proper for the office of ambassador? Sir, said Bacon, tall men are like houses of four or five stories, wherein commonly the uppermost room is worst furnished». And Burton says, that «commonly your vast bodies and fine features are sottish, dull, and heavy spirits». Yet, notwithstanding this coincidence of opinion, of these different countries and persons, and the suffrages of others might perhaps be joined; the observation will be found to be much oftener contradicted than confirmed; and almost everyone's experience will tell him, that wit and judgment are promiscuously distributed, and fall as often to the lot of the tall and the robust as to those of an opposite stature and bulk.

To the indolent every day is a holiday, or a day of rest. Erasmus has taken occasion, in the explication of this sentence, to shew the mischiefs incurred by the increasing number of festivals or holidays, enjoined by the church. They were intended, he observes, as days of necessary relaxation for the labouring poor, but were too frequently passed by them in the grossest debauchery. The abolishing the greater part of these holidays, may be esteemed, as not the smallest of the many advantages produced to this country by the Reformation.

Do not stir the fire with a sword, do not irritate an angry person; rather endeavour to sooth and appease him, and take some more convenient opportunity for reproof. When no longer under the influence of passion, he may hear and be benefited by your remonstrances.

A term of reproach, or contempt. Men of the lowest form or seat, where parasites, buffoons, and persons of inferior condition were placed at the tables of the great, where they were sometimes admitted, but so placed, and treated, as to make them sensible, in how little estimation they were held. Juvenal is very severe, both on those inflicting, and those submitting, to such indignities. The phrase was also used to denote persons filling inferior situations in public offices, or of little estimation in literature.

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».