PROVERBS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1930, Page 4

PROVERBS

:; THEIR DEFINITION

ill ANTIQUITY AND HUMOUR

SAYINGS

:,;;. Nobody has defined a proverb in a : %ay to win universal acceptance. Proverbs are "kittlo cattle." Aristotle ; tried his hand at the business of stat- ;■ ing precisely what constitutes a proI verb, and a legion of learned and astute 'scholars took up the task in turn, only V ; "tb be bafElea. Somebody onco said : ibout definitions that he would rather experience true repentanco than be able ;' to give .the most exact definition thereof, and wo may console ourselves in similar fashion by enjoying and using (the proverbs rather than troubling our i heads about their naturo and essence, ;:'»ays a writer in the Melbourne "Age." ■ ■■> The safe course is to content oneself with a description in lieu of a iiaefinition, and plenty of these are on "record. Earl Russell's is happy and i-ipithy—"The wisdom of many and the ii>vit oftfme." The fundamental featuro ■ 'o.£ a p*overb is its adoption by the enlire community. Most authorities re- : gird Cipriano dc Valcra's version as : coming very near the mark —"Proverbs i's're short sayings, sententious and true, , and long since accepted as such by '.'common consent." ■';;'As; to origin, many proverjjs now jlfjoasting world-wide use originated in hi family through the humour or even blunder of one of its members. It eanie to be retailed in the village or ■town, spread through the whole coun- ' try, and in time was adopted by the ■Tyholo world. Some of them owe their '.' existence and popularity to common experience. Tho statement that one : swallow does not make a summer may ilfave been the product of many long 'tears, and a simultaneous summing up ;.g£ careful observation. In point of ■'fact it is more than 2000 years old. , hl£hat other about looking a gift horse 'in the mouth was in use- in the days of gt. Jerome. King David referred to '•**a proverb Of the ancients." If, howiever, one were in search of a modern illustration of an ancient proverb he would probably never find a more ■amusing one than that furnished by Etn English nobleman. The proverb, ifc'Tho remedy is worse than the disease," first appears in Seneca, but Xord Derby gave it new point. On the advice of friends he tried a South I'African port wine, highly praised for it's power of curing gout. "I prefer 'the gout," said he. ~ ,; NINE YEAES OF COLLECTING. ■ C'The latest volume on tho subject is Proverbs and Proverbial Ehrases," by G. L. Appersou. The author spent more than nine years in ; collecting these proverbs, metaphors, i^nd similes, but a glance through a iscore of pages would lead the reader jtb say tlrat the surprise was that it '4id not take nineteen years. . Not consent with gathering these proverbs and 'setting them, more or less in alphabetical order, Mr. Apperson furnishes 'dated quotations in chronological order after the fashion of Murray's dictionary.: The book is entitled to be called a monumental work, and certain ',&> be quoted aliko by learned and simple its a court of appeal. In his modest preface he incidentally gives us his definition of a proverb as "a crystallised summary of popular wisdom or fancy,?' and points out that it would •certainly be long current in popular speech before it could make its appearance in literature. " One is" amazed at the industry of an author who has read oi1 examined nearly 300Q works in English literature in order ,to provide a classified index of English proverbs. ■ .-.The. universally admitted. importance oi health is well emphasised in the; pro^ Verbs: "Health is better than wealth"; (^health without money is half an ague"j .'•'fruit is gold in the morning, silver in the afternoon, and lead at tight." '•':. ;--Considerable space is naturally demoted to the subject of money, and some pf the proverbs are rich in a certain dry humour. "If you would know the Value tf money, try to borrow some." Going back as far as Horace, one finds 'jfall things are obedient to money," and in modern form "money does all things" has its American equivalent, '.'the almighty dollar." Another saying, dated 1732, is: "Money is ace of trumps." • Among the changes which .iiioney makes are these: "Money makes friends enemies"; "money makes marriage"; "money makes mastery"; ■'■t money makes the man 1'; "money intakes the mare to go"; "money makes the old wife trot." The last-mention-]'e3 dates from 1691. The familiar, halfcynical saying current in our day, .<<money talks," is as old as 1586. ;;.One might expect quite a host of proverbs summing up the general belief and prevailing humour associated %ith that much maligned lady, the "mother-in-law," but Mr. Apperson produces only three.. "Mother-in-law amd daughter-in-law are a hail storm"; ,'^inother-in-law remembers not that she Tras a daughter-in-law," and "there is;'but one good mother-in-law, and she is; dead." This last and most severe saying is set down as hailing from the Ni:w Forest in-1863. c PROVERB? ON, WOMEN. 'j-The perennial subject of women has a/large place in this entertaining and instructive volume. "A good wife must be bespoke, for there's none ready in'ade'*f "a woman's tongue is the last thing about her that dies"; "women's instinct is often truer than man's reasoning." In Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer," occurs the saying: ''.Women and music should, never be dated." Among tho more pungent proverbs are: "Women conceal all that they know not." This saying recalls the joke: "Telegram, telephone, and tellawoman," and that other, "We havo no newspaper in our town, but we have a women's sewing club." To mako a complete change of the subject we may look up what the book says by way. of proverbs, about his Satanis Majesty. It appears there once was a statue of the devil at Lincoln CJolloge, Oxford, but it was taken down jn 1731. As early as 1540 there was the proverb: "As the devil looks over Lincoln." "Give the devil his duo," has a connection with the one quoted by Defoe, "Every devil' has not a cloven hoof," and that other, "It is a gin t» belie the devil." On the other hand are Ben Jonson's "The devil is an ass," and the still earlier, "The (levil is a knave," with the third cen« . tiiry Christian saying, "The devil is, God's ape." Fuller is responsible for recording, " 'Twaß BUroly the devil that taught women to dance' and usscs to'bray."

«'A FOOL AND HIS MONEY —-"

: -It is not a little significant that more, than average space is given to fools. Leaving out the uioro familiar sayings such as the reference to a fool and his money being soon parted, one is- entertained and possibly instructed by such proverbs as "A fool at forty is a fool indeed," "A fool believes everything," "A fooican dance without a fiddle, "A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it." On the other hand, the Greeks and our own Chaucer warn us that "A fool may sometimes give a, wise man counsel." Most-of us, and especially our-medicos, are familiar with the saw, "Every, man

is a fool or a physician at forty." Few, howover, may be aware that tho saying is as old as Tacitus. The dictum, "A fool fhihkoth himself wise" comes too near homo to leave any of us quite comfortable, unless Wo can complete tho quotation as Shakespeare docs, and say, "But the wise man knows himself to be a-fool." . How will meteorologists like hearing tho proverb, "Pools are woather wise," or its completion, "Thoso that are weather wise aro rarely otherwise'"? Wo alt hear a good deal about a, fool's Paradiso, but the full quotation is not so familial". "Fools' paradises are wise men's purgatories." The plentifulness of fools is caustically set forth in "If all fools had baubles,;, we should want fuel."