EVERY MAN A BRICK.

New Zealand Tablet, 28 March 1918, Page 45

EVERY MAN A BRICK.

Everyone knows that when one man says of another, "He's a brick!" he means to bestow as high a compliment upon him as one man can upon another, and yet the term appears to be utterly senseless because of the general unattractiveness of a brick. . Like many other 6ayings which have their root among the people, it will be found that this term started out with a very sensible meaning. It had its origin far back in the days of Lycurgus, the Spartan ruler. Lycurgus had a great many very wise notions as to how private and public matters of state should be adjusted. He it was who first advanced the idea that there was no necessity to build a wall about a city if the soldiers were trained to properly defend the place. On one occasion a great ambassador from a far country visited Lycurgus and inquired of him how it was that no walls surrounded the cities and towns. "We have walls," said Lycurgus, smilingly. "Come and I will show them to you." Then he took his visitor out to the field, where the army stood drawn up in the order of battle, and pointing to the long ranks, he said simply, "These are the walls of Sparta, and every man is a brick."