POPULAR SAYINGS

Evening Star, Issue 20055, 21 December 1928, Page 1

POPULAR SAYINGS

“ SENSE, SHORTNESS, AND SALT " Professor JB. A; Wosler-Marck gave tho Erqcc. lecture <sri ."Che Study of ■ Popular Sayings’. at Ibe British Association meeting. He said'; , ■ ! “It. had’' been stated that the chief, ingredients’ which ’ went ’to "make a proverb were sense,shortness, and salt, ‘but the ; most ’ essential. : characteristic of all '■ was popularity aM acceptance and adoption bn the part of the people. 1 1 : “ Very many .-of .our . proverbs had : been borrowed • from the. Romans, who ; themselves had borrowed from; the; Greeks, and another • great source had been ..the , Bible. Others, had cqme from medieval monas-. teries or had been introduced into Europe by Jews or Arabs.' . Tho resemblance between' proverbs might have another cause than ■ diffusion—namely, the 1 - uniformity of human nature,- which made men in similar .situations think and feel alike. , “Proverbs were not. merely, reflections of jife,; but played an active part- m if.. Proverbs taught resignation in adversity. : They gave counsels and and .vitro, the means of influencing, the emotions, w;n. and behaviour, of others. Tho '■rovorb , was a opioo by which anybody'could add piquancy to his speech.” 1