FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROVERBS.

Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 148, 6 November 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

FRENCH AND ENGLISH PROVERBS.

We English seem to have selected tho mouse as an emblem in our "As dumb as a mouse ;" the French have preferred a glass, for they say, "As dumb as a glass." We say, "As deaf'as a post;" the French, ''As deaf- as a pot." "As dull as ditch-water," Gallicised becomes, "As sad' as a nightcap." " Don't • count your chickens before they are hatched," is changed into, "Don't sell the skin of a bear before having ; killed it." Instead of, " Biting oil one's nose to spite one's face,' 1 a 1 similarly uselgas experiment *£ illua- i trated by " Spiftiiig iv the air that it may fall on ont&^pßt." The selfevident invposs^iHy in tho words, " You can't getJMood out of a stone," is represented l)y, "One could not comb a thing that has no hair." (This lasb also " goes without saying," which, as literally translated from the French, now forma a proverb in our own language). In the proverb, " One man may lead a horse to the water, but a hundred can't make him drink," our neighbours have not inappropriately selected an "ass" as the illustrative animal. — Chamber's Journal.