THE HOME OF THE PROVERB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3015, 27 December 1911, Page 84

THE HOME OF THE PROVERB.

Were we to examine critically the system of moi'ality whereon modern civilisation is founded we (Should find the whole structure based on a complex chain of simple yet sententious utterances, which condense into an epigrammatic form the wisdom of the ages. All our rules of ■conduct are enshrined in proverbs. They are axiomatic in the sense that they are self-evident truths which require no demonstration. When we trace them back to their sources it is difficult not to feel a little ashamed of our modernity, for the best of our proverbs are very ancent, and they nearly all come from Greece. The last 20 centuries have added little that is valuable to mankind’s storehouse of ethical principles. The philosophers of Athens furnished our storehouse most substantially, and since that marvellous era we have been largely content with a process of refurbishing. Mediaeval and modem thought have proved decent ‘‘spring cleaners,” but poor craftsmen in the origination of new ideas. Our debt to ancient Greece is simply immeasurable. Greece laid down a code of morals for her own guidance, which governs and inspire® the world to-day, and since Athens fell in mins mankind has scarcely travelled a yard further towards the goal of moral wisdom and spiritual perfection. Undoubtedly the most beautiful message of Christ to humanity was Ills counsel to love our neighbours as ourselves. Nearly 700 years before Christ was born at Bethlehem Pittacus of Mityle.no, who died n.c. 650, taught the people of Athens ‘‘Do not that ever to your neighbours which you would take ill from them.” What child of the twentieth century has not painfully traced in his Copy book the words “Honesty is the best policy.” This was the exact teaching of Zeno the Stoic to the Athenians b.c. 290, and Zeno also fathered the aphorism “Virtue is the truest wisdom, and is its own reward.’’ Among the sayings of Bias of Priene, who flourished about the same tune, the following may be recorded in witness of that great mind’s tremendous influence upon the moral destinies of men;—“lt is better to rule by love than by fear.” “Accept facts.” “Love your friend with caution, for he may (Some day become your enemy; treat your enemy with justice that ho may some day become your friend.”

deobuluu of Lindus earned undying

fame by the utterance at a time of crisis of five words of golden meaning—" Now and always avoid excess." Periander of Corinth, who died b.c. 585, gave us the proverb : "There is nothing which prudence and perseverance cannot accomplish." This wise man taught his disciples to despise' adversity, ani to Conceal their misfortune?. The Jews g'ot from him their maxim, "Honour youir fa their and your mother." The words of Periander were, "Revere and study, to be worthy of y'our parents, that your days may be many and your lives respected." ''Pleasure is precarious, but virtue is immortal," was another of his saws.

Ohilo the Lacedemonian, e.g. 570, ora-' gimated the maxim, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." He was the first man to say, "Think before you speak.'' He taught the Athenians that—" Honest loss is better than shameful gain." He counseled them—" Speak, no evil of the dead." "-Reverence the aged," and "Bear injuries with fortitude." But his two finest proverbs are : —"Know thyself" and "Be true to thyself." How few of us_ moderns ever dream that we owe thsse flashing treasures of wisdom to a simple old Athenian shoolmaster, who deid nearly six centuries before the Christian era!

Solon of Sala/mie. the great law-giver of Athens, who was made the virtual dictator of Greece in the year n.c. 594, left us many pearls of priceless worth. Among his precepts are : —"He will best command who has learned how to obey." "In all things let reason be your guide." "Let no man be pronounced happy before his death." "Whatever you do, do it well.''

Anaxagoras of Clazomena, who was born u.c. 500, gave mankind the proverb : "Everything happens for the best, for a pure mind free from all material concretions governs the universe." He also said for the first time in the history of the world, "Mind is the masted of matter." And he taught, "Our first care should be for our country," "In the midst of misfortunes preserve an equal mind." "Science is the highest good." "To know all is to forgive all." "Be ambitious of knowledge, but not of place." "Be superior to avarice." "God is the cause of ./whatever is fair and good." "In death all men are of even rank." "To pardon is the best vengeance." "If you would (tonfound your enemies live virtuously." What have all our latter thinkers done from Shakespeare upwards or downwards except to rodire&s these gems' of truth in modern garb ? Socrates is a vast mine of sententious wealth. To choose firom amongst his precepts is like putting a blind man into the vault of a nation's treasury and bidding him discriminate between coin and ingot. All the moral apophthegms of Socrates are jewels, and we can only e eiect them by haphazard. "Bo always' temperate,"said he. "Fools live to eat, the wise eat io live " "No man can command success, but all can deserve it." "Be virtuous and you will be happy." "Never disguise the truth" "F&ar God alone." 'God will " reward the good and punish the wicked." "God sees all things." "The principles of virtuous conduct which are common to all mankind are the laws of God." "True felicity consists in the knowledge and practice of virtue." ''The power of reason i& man's divinest gift.' " It is better to suffer death than to inflict injustice on another." " The greatest object of philosophy is to lead men into an acquaintance with themselves." "It is often possible to evade the penalty of human laws, but no man can be unjust or ungrateful without suffering for his crime, for thereby he offends laws that have proceeded from a more excellent legislator than man." "No man can better spend his life than in the service of his fellow-citizens." Plato, b.o. 430, (said: "The end of knowledge is to render man as like to God as human nature will permit. This likeness consists in prudence, justice, sanctity, and tern p erance. Aristotle, b.c. 384, taught that "Virtue consists in preserving that mean in all things which reason prescribes." " All virtues are middle courses." "Fortitude is the mean between timidity and rashness." "Temperance is the mean between the excess and the neglect of pleasure." "Liberality is the mean between prodigality and avarice." "Magnanimity is the mean between pettiness and pride." '' Modesty is the mean between impudenoe and bashfulness." " Equity is the mean between the defects and rigours of the law."

Theophrastus, B.C. 323, gave us the maxims, " Resnect yourself and others will respect you." 'Love is the passion of an indolent mind." "Blushing is the complexion of virtue." Antisthenes, B.C. 420. said: "That State is hastening to ruin in which virtue is despised." "The most essential part of learning is to unlearn our errors." " The man who is afraid of another is a slave." "As rust consumeth iron, so doth envy consume the heart of man."

Diogenes said : "The virtuous man is no countryman; he is a citizen of humanity." " Nothing is or is not except in the unsubstantial and vaporous opinions of men." (Compare Shakespeare's aphorism, "Nothing is bad or good, but thinking makes it so.") Zeno, B.C. 264 ,said: " You may imprison and- destroy my body, but you cannot fetter or destroy my soul." "Every virtue is a conformity with Nature, every vice is a deviation from it." "Wisdom consists in the power to distinguish good from evil." " Man is a microcosm, composed, like the woi-ld of matter and a rational principle. It becomes him, therefore, to live as part of a great whole, and to accommodate all his desires and pursuits to the laws of Nature." "The greatest of all blessings is a firm and equal mind." _ "Man has three great duties —to worship God, who is the author of all good; to control hie own passions, an<l to love all men, even his enemies." " Man. is not born to serve himself alone, but foi* the common good of humanity."

" The virtuous man will ask no other re* ward of virtue than the consciousness of doing good."

Pericles said : " Time is the best of all counsellors."

Pythagoras, B.C. 586, left us many shining maxims. Some of the most famous are as follow:—"Do what you think is right .in scorn of consequence." "To sin is human ; to pardon a sinner is divine." "Silence is often golden.' "Sobriety is the strength 'of the soul." "No man is free who is the servant of his passions." " The design and object of all moral precepts 'is to lead men to the imitation of God." "Do not play with edged tools." "Abjure vacillation, yet look before you leap." "Above all things, govern your tongue." Empedooles said: "Be kind to animals; all living creatures come from God." Parmenides., b.c. 504, said: " Nothing in Nature is ever destroyed. Kind words and ill deeds alike are indestructible, and will live forever."

Democritus, n.c. 460, said. “Truth lies a deep well, from which it is the office of reason to uplift it.” “He who subdues his anger is more heroic than he who conquers an enemy.” “It is criminal not only to do evil but to wish it.” “The sweetest things become the sourest by excess. (Cf. Shakespeare, “ Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”) “Do nothing shameful while you are alone; then you will do nothing shameful ever.” “ A man should either be good or seem to be so.” (Of. Shakespeare, “Assume a virtue though you have it not.”) “By desiring little a poor man becomes rich/’ “It is better for fools to be governed than to rule.” “It is impossible to doubt the existence of God, for if there is no God the universe must needs be nothing, and from nothing nothing can proceed. Yet the world has proceeded from the universe and the world evidently exists.” Heraclitus, n.c. 504, taught: ‘The purpose of human life is to perfect the soul.” “The body is nothing, the soul is all.” “The first virtue is to be temperate; the first wisdom is to follow Nature.” “ The wise man leads a simple life.” Epicurus, b.c. 344, said: “The end of life is to be happy; the machinery of 'happiness is the practice of virtue.” “Death is no proper object of terror; while we are death is not, and when death arrives we are not. Death, therefore, concerns neither the living nor the dead.” “The body is the prison of the soul. Death frees the soul and renders is to the Divine principle from which it emanated.” “To the virtuous man his last is his happiest hour; he goes to God.”