SOME EVERY-DAY -PROVERBS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2668, 3 May 1905, Page 78

SOME EVERY-DAY - PROVERBS.

By Jotck Joceltx.

- "A proverb," it has been well said, 'is the wisdom of many and the wit of one" — a condensation, by the way, which can Scarcely be surpassed. When a principle

4ias been established by experience and its assertion justified' it naturally crystallises Into brief expr^sion, and thus, accepted by

the multitude and conceded by the thoughtful, it is spoken of as having "passed into U proverb."

Simply defined, a proverb is something proved, but~sTgood specimen will include anuch more — it must have the gift of bre,Tity, be brimful of sense, and compact - encugh, to be invested with a certain ele- J A veritable extract of the producing language it should be gem-like in its jgualityi a diamond of finest, water, cutting Sharp and flashing light. It must also refflect the humour of 3, people. Bound to be trite, it will have spice to redeem it from. |the Qommonplace. "When the oat's away 3the mice will play" is exemplified not only in the nursery-, the gravest history has it Jon continual record, and the statement that "a cat may look- at asking" is as full of |iefiant pride as of impudent- simplicity. "It . -is an. ill wind t&afc blows nobody any good" . 'breathes optimism, a genial faith that "there's a divinity t&at shapes our ends." "Birds s of a feather flock together" is as trim, and airy in its phrasing as a fine.veather crowd' in its manners on a'race day or regatta.. "A rose by any other name would smell «& sweet" has a smack of*cynical philo--fiophy, and one is inclined to question frrhethier therrose, though no less redolent, *rould be quite as satisfactory did it lack jkhe full and perfect word by which we know St. ."There's many a slip 'twixt . the cup -fend the lip" has a suspended breath — a suggestion almost too cruel of shattered . liope and blighted life. We naturally like ifclriV better : "To every cloud there is a Jsilvcr lining" ; we see the cloud almost before it comes, and fear ; the air is electrical las _we bahold it, but we remember the Jbeauty that is veiled and wait for the mysterious benefaction. "Two* are better than one." Oh,' .how mucih. better. Could one floubt it? Certainly not the man who puts Ins .shoulder to the wheel, the girl at her first dance, the. glad, parents rejoiced by a •twin ~ birth j or the happy pair before the altar, and, oh, how sad when one is taken 1 jand the other left! I Delightfully heart some is the energetic ' jftdage, "Where there's a will there's also: & way," and low correspondingly dirge-like Jthe warning, "Delays are dangerous." jTaken together,- they have doubtless stimulated many a laggard and sent many a - Iknight-erranfr -post-haste to victory ; while _ ?c He wlo hesitates is lost" should be "Strictly ponderedrby everyone where duty is in" question with "youth at the 'helm and ipleasure at the prow." "One swallow does not make a spring" -5s qt Greek- origin 1 , and reminds us of anj>f£er and.more homely adagej "Too much -tof a good thing is as bad* as at all." 1 Might one dare to suggest that possibly it x fpould be worse! Greek also is the axiom ]bhat "money makes the man," and here, fcco, perhaps some flippancy may be excused. Must not the man make money first? "Truth, lies between extremes" is an Eminently stable maxim, and "A bird in ihe hand is worth two in the bush" reaninds us of another much akin : "There is no time liks the present" ; both good mottoes for the student or the man of business. Though "the race be not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong," .both classes are reminded in the homeliest ibf proverbs that "It is the early bird that catches .the worm." This advice is balanced by another just as sage, which proclaims the folly jof "burning the candle at Iboth ends." "Whom thie gods would destroy, they ]6rst make mad" has. at certain political and 'social junctures, some not far remote, been fcrbught forcibly to mind. When folly i>rings-about the fall of empire, human nature reels, and it is not surprising that fch© heathen mind should have thrown, its awe and wonder into such a mould. , • "Whom the gods love die young" is • pteeped in pathos, "and would seem to be Repressive of a hope beyond the graye — p, far-off gleam of glorious and imperishable life, a panacea for the divine despair of the restless and far-reaching Greek. From jbbe Greek we turn to the most noble and all-inspiring of proverbial anthologies, the Hebrew proverbs. Inimitable and ilLLrait-

able in their inspired wisdom, they must for ever stand alone, unrivalled for concrete wisdom and the most felicitous expression. "The fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold" teaches in the most pictorial way the necessity for suffering. That "righteousness exalteth a nation" has been proudly boasted of our own, and that such boasting may be for ever justified is devoutly to be wished.

As the poetry of a nation shows at once its spirit and its power of achievement, so do proverbs, in which poetry itself is often present, crystallise its experience and its sense of duty. The thoughts of the wise at all epochs have been in consonance, and on great questions the great heart of humanity still beats in unison.

There are proverbs which, like all exceptions, go to prove the rule ; questionable ones Which, if taken without the "grain of salt," are of no account. "All is fair in love and war," for instance. The lover who, should presume upon this or the warrior who should wholly be actuated by its spirit would have little claim to true devotion or to real courage-. If the proverb were always paramount, poetry would have to suffer, for though it contain the seed of thought, the sheath must burst for its expansion into the flower of conduct, which after all is the basis of true poatry in every country and in every age.