SAYINGS, AND WHO FIRST SAID THEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 27

SAYINGS, AND WHO FIRST SAID THEM.

Many of our common sayinjjs, so trite and pithy, are used without the least idea from whose mouth or pen they first originated. Probably the works of Shakespeare furnish us with more of these familiar maxims than any other writer, for to him we owe : "All is not gold that glitters," " Make a virtue of necessity," " Screw your courage to the sticking plack" (not point), "They laugh that win," " This is the short and long of it," "Comparisons are odious," "As merry as the day is long," "A Daniel come to judgment," " Frailty, thy name is Woman," and a host of others. Washington Irving gives us: "The almighty dollar;" Thomas Morton queried long ago, "What will Mrs Grundy say?" while Goldsmith answers, " Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no fibs." Charles C. Pickney gives "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow citizens " (not countrymen), appeared in the resolutions presented to the House of Representatives ia December, 1790, prepared by General Henry Lee. From the same we cull, "Make asßur* anoe doubly sure," " Ohrismas comeß but once a year," "Count their chickens ere they are hatched," and "Look before you leap." Thomas Taaser, a writer of the sixteenth century, gives us, " It's an ill will turns no good," "Better late than never," "Look ere thou leap," and "The stone that is rolling can gather no moss." "All cry and no wool " is found in Butler's " Hudibras." Dryden says, " None but the brave deserve the fair," "Men are but children of a larger growth," and "Through thick and thin." " No pent up Utioa contracts our power," declared Jonathan Sewell. "Of two evils I have chosen the least," and "The end must justify the means," are from Matthew Pryor. We are indebted to Colley Cibber for the agreeable intelligence that "Richmond is himself again." Johnson tells us of " A good hater," and Mackintosh, in 1791, the phrase often attributed to John Randolph, " Wise and mastsrly in aotivity." "Variety's the very spioe of life," and " Not much the worse for wear," Cowper. "Man proposes, but God disposes," Thomas d'Kempia. Christopher Marlow gave forth the invitation so often repeated by his brothers in a less public way, "Love me little, love me long." Edward Coke was of opinion that "A man's house is his oastle." To Milton we owe " The paradise of fools," "A wilderness of sweets," and "Hoping melanoholy and moonstruck madness." Edward Young tells us "Death loves a shining mark," "A fool at forty is a fool indeed," but alas ! for his knowledge of human nature when he tells us "Man wants but little, nor that little long." From Bacon opmes, " Knowledge is power," and Thomas Southerne reminds us that "Pity's akia tojlove." Dean Swift thought that "Bread is the staff of life." Campbell found that " Coming events cast their shadows before," and " 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," is from Keats, Franklin said, "God helps them who help themselves," and Lawrence Sterne comforts us with the thought, " God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb." Even some of the 1< slang" phrases of the day have legitimate origin. "Putting your foot in it," is certainly not a very elegant mode of expression, but according to the Asiatic Researches, it is quite a fine point of law ; when the title to land is disputed in Hindostan two holes are dug in the ground and used to encase a limb of each lawyer (?), and the one who tired first lost his client's case. Fancy, if yon can, soma of our famous "limbs of the law" pleading in such a manner ! It is generally the client '.who "puts his foot in it." When things are in disorder they art often said to be turned topsy-lurvy. This expression is derived from the way in which turf used for fuel is placed to dry, the turf being turned downward, and the expression then means topside turf way. Plutarch, iv his life of Argesileus, King of Sparta, gives us the origin of a quaint and familiar expression. On a certain oocasion an ambassador from Epirus, on a diplomatic mission, was shown by the King over his capital. The ambassador knew of the monarch's fame— knew that though only nominally King of Sparta, he was yet ruler of Greece — and he had looked to see massive walls rearing aloft their embattled towers for the defence of the town, but he found nothing of the kind. He marvelled much at this, and spoke of it to the King. " Sire," he said, " I have visited most of the principal towns, and I find no walls reared for defence. Why is this?" " Indeed, Sir Ambassador," replied Argesileus, "thou canst not have looked carefully. Coma with me to-morrow morning, and I will show you the walls of Sparta." Accordingly, on the following morning the king led his guest out upon the plains where his army was drawn up in full battle array, and pointing proudly to the serried host he said: ''There, thou beholdest the walls of Sparta —ten thousand men, and every man a brick !"