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.

Is your trumpeter dead, that you arc obliged to praise yourself?. This may be considered as a caution against vain blasting. Act so as to be deserving of commendation; and though you should not meet with all the applause you may deserve, you will have the testimony of your own mind, which will be abundantly satisfactory. Hear, O ye Venetians, and I will tell ye which is the best thing in the world : «To contemn it». Sebastian Foscarius, sometime Duke of Venice, ordered this to be inscribed on his tomb.

You have brought a nest of hornets about your ears, may be applied to persons who have engaged in dispute with men of greater rank or power than themselves; or who have undertaken any business beyond their ability to execute, and from which they cannot extricate themselves without loss. To the same purport is

«Leonem stimulas».

Why awake the lion who may tear you in pieces? and the following

«Malum bene conditum ne moveris».

When you have escaped an injury, or when any dispute or contest in which you were engaged is compromised, and settled, do nothing that may revive it, you may not come off a second time so well. Non destare il can che dorme, the Italians say, do not wake a sleeping dog. And the French, N'as tu pas tort, de reveiller le chat qui dort? were you not wrong to wake the cat that was sleeping? or, Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte, when sorrow is asleep, do not wake it.

It is digging a well in the neighbourhood of a river, may be said to persons doing any thing perfectly preposterous, and useless, as giving money, books, or any other articles, to persons who have of them already, more than they have opportunity or inclination to use.

It is like washing bricks, which the more you scour them, the more muddy they become; meaning bricks made of clay, and not burnt, but dried in the sun; such as were used in the East, and probably are so now, or «Laver la tête d'un âne», by which the French designate such unavailing attempts. The proverb may also be applied to persons, endeavouring by fictitions ornaments to make any thing appear more beautiful and valuable than it is, or by rhetorical flourishes to give a false colour to any action.

Though he is abundantly commended, still he is suffered to live in indigence. It is an old, and too well founded complaint, that the good man frequently fails in meeting with that encouragement and assistance, to which, by his worth, he seems entitled; nay, that he has often the mortification of seeing persons, of no very nice honour, or who are even manifestly deficient in moral qualities, intercepting those emoluments, which should be the reward of uprightness and justice. But the man who is thus rewarded, was active and industrious, and had merited the preference that was given him, by performing some service that was grateful, useful, or even necessary to the person through whose means he obtained his advancement; while the good man, who was overlooked, might probably want that assiduity, or ingenuity, which are necessary to enable us to be useful to ourselves, or others. The preference that is said to be given to men of bad characters, is not given them on account of their evil qualities, but for having cultivated their talents, and rendered themselves serviceable; neither are the good passed over on account of their virtues, but for not having acquired those qualities which are necessary to make their virtues conspicuous, and which, if possessed, would enable them to demand the assistance they complain is withheld from them. The earth yields its productions, not in proportion to the good or bad characters of the possessors, but to the greater or less degree of knowledge and industry, that have been displayed in its cultivation.

The lucky have their days, and those they choose,
The unlucky have but hours, and those they lose.

Is it not likely, that activity and ingenuity often supply the place of kick, or fortune, and that those who complain they are unfortunate, or unlucky, are in reality only stupid, or indolent? And perhaps, this is oftener the case, than we are willing to confess.

I am always armed with a sprig of laurel, was said by persons who had unexpectedly escaped from any threatened danger. The laurel was thought by the ancients to be an antidote against poison, and to afford security against lightning. On account of these supposed properties, Tiberius Caesar is said to have constantly worn a branch of laurel around his neck. Laurel water was prescribed by the ancient physicians, in the cure of those fits to which children are subjected. It was, therefore until within a very few years, always found in the shops of the apothecaries. Later experience has shown, that the distilled water of the laurel leaf, when strongly impregnated, is a powerful and deadly poison. It was with this preparation that Captain Donellan killed Sir Theodosius Baughton. The opinion of the power of the laurel in preserving against lightning, rests on no better foundation than, that of its efficacy in preventing the effects of poison, or in curing epilepsy. A horse-shoe nailed on the threshold of the door, was supposed by the common people in this country, to preserve the house from the effects of witchcraft, and it is still in repute among our sailors, who nail a horse-shoe to the mast, with a view of preserving the vessel from such evil influence.

He lives a hare's life. He is full of care and anxiety, like a hare, said to be the most timid of all animals, which is perpetually on the watch, and even in its sleep is said not to shut its eyes, lest it should be surprised and taken by the dogs. The hares, tired of living in a state of constant fear and anxiety, were determined to put an end to their existence, by drowning themselves. With this resolution, they rushed clown to a pool of water. Some frogs, who were near the pool, alarmed at the noise, leaped into the water, to avoid, the danger which they supposed threatened them; this being noticed by some of the most forward of the hares, they stopped, and observing to their brethren, that their condition was not worse than that of the frogs, they desisted from their intention. This is one of the apologues of Æsop, and was meant to cure men, labouring under misfortunes, from thinking that they are more unhappy than the rest of mankind; there being few so miserable, but they may find others equally, or more wretched than themselves.

A friend in words; any one who by his conversation seems desirous of being esteemed a friend, but whose kindness extends no further; who is free in promising, but very backward in performing any friendly office, is the kind of person intended to be censured by this adage. Pollicitis dives, quilibet esse potest, any man may be liberal in promises, they cost nothing. Il se ruine a promettre, et s'acquitte à ne rien tenir, he ruins himself by promising, but saves himself by not performing, for promettre et tenir sont deux, there is a great difference between saying and doing, which is also a Spanish axiom, Del dicho al hecho, ay gran trecho. Il nous a promis monts et merveilles, he promises mountains; more in a month, we say, than he will perform in a year.

To war with the tongue, to spend the whole of one's rage in coarse and rude language, in threats which we have neither the power, nor inclination, perhaps, to carry into execution, is the resort of weak and cowardly persons. Much of this wordy war is practised at the bar, particularly by those defending a bad cause. Qui aspidis venenum in lingua circumferunt, the poison of asps is under their lips. Wounds made with the tongue are often more hurtful than those made with the sword. La lengua del mal amigo, mas corta que el cuchillo, the tongue of a false friend is sharper than a knife, cuts deeper. La lengua no ha osso, e osso fa rompere, the tongue breaks bones, though itself has none. Mors et vita in manibus linguæ, it is often the arbiter of life and death. An intemperate tongue is not only injurious to others, but to its possessor, it is therefore said, Vincula da lingure vel tibi vincula dabit, restrain your tongue, or it will bring you into restraint. Hence there is no precept more frequently or more strongly inculcated, than to set a guard over that mischievous member. He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips, shall have destruction, and the tongue of the wise is health. En boca cerrada no entra moscha, flies do not enter into the mouth that is shut, or, no mischief can ensue from being silent; and an ounce of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, who filled high offices in th state, during the reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and the Queens Mary and Elizabeth, being asked by what means he had preserved himself through so many changes, said, «by being a willow, and not an oak».