Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 — The Philosophy of Proverbs, part 1

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROVERBS.

In antique furniture we sometimes discover a convenience which long disuse had made us unacquainted with, and are surprised by the aptness which we did not suspect was concealed in its solid forms.

We have found the labour of the workmen to have been as admirable as the material itself, which is still resisting the mouldering touch of time among those modern inventions, elegant and unsubstantial, which, often put together with unseasoned wood, are apt to warp and fly into pieces when brought into use.

We have found how strength consists in the selection of materials, and that, whenever the substitute is not better than the original, we are losing something in that test of experience, which all things derive from duration.

Be this as it may!

I shall not unreasonably await for the artists of our novelties to retrograde into massive greatness, although I cannot avoid reminding them how often they revive the forgotten things of past times!

It is well known that many of our novelties were in use by our ancestors!

In the history of the human mind there is, indeed, a sort of antique furniture which I collect, not merely for their antiquity, but for the sound condition in which I still find them, and the compactness which they still show.

Centuries have not worm-eaten their solidity!

and the utility and delightfulness which they still afford make them look as fresh and as ingenious as any of our patent inventions.

By the title of the present article the reader has anticipated the nature of the old furniture to which I allude.

I propose to give what, in the style of our times, may be called the Philosophy of Proverbs--a topic which seems virgin.

The art of reading proverbs has not, indeed, always been acquired even by some of their admirers; but my observations, like their subject, must be versatile and unconnected; and I must bespeak indulgence for an attempt to illustrate a very curious branch of literature, rather not understood than quite forgotten.

Proverbs have long been in disuse.

"A man of fashion," observes Lord Chesterfield, "never has recourse to proverbs and vulgar aphorisms;"

and, since the time his lordship so solemnly interdicted their use, they appear to have withered away under the ban of his anathema.

His lordship was little conversant with the history of proverbs, and would unquestionably have smiled on those "men of fashion" of another stamp, who, in the days of Elizabeth, James, and Charles, were great collectors of them; would appeal to them in their conversations, and enforce them in their learned or their statesmanlike correspondence.

Few, perhaps, even now, suspect that these neglected fragments of wisdom, which exist among all nations, still offer many interesting objects for the studies of the philosopher and the historian; and for men of the world still open an extensive school of human life and manners.

The home-spun adages, and the rusty "sayed-saws," which remain in the mouths of the people, are adapted to their capacities and their humours.

Easily remembered, and readily applied, these are the philosophy of the vulgar, and often more sound than that of their masters!

whoever would learn what the people think, and how they feel, must not reject even these as insignificant.

The proverbs of the street and of the market, true to nature, and lasting only because they are true, are records that the populace at Athens and at Rome were the same people as at Paris and at London, and as they had before been in the city of Jerusalem!

Proverbs existed before books.

The Spaniards date the origin of their _refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego_, "sayings of old wives by their firesides," before the existence of any writings in their language, from the circumstance that these are in the old romance or rudest vulgar idiom.

The most ancient poem in the Edda, "the sublime speech of Odin," abounds with ancient proverbs, strikingly descriptive of the ancient Scandinavians.

Undoubtedly proverbs in the earliest ages long served as the unwritten language of morality, and even of the useful arts; like the oral traditions of the Jews, they floated down from age to age on the lips of successive generations.

The name of the first sage who sanctioned the saying would in time be forgotten, while the opinion, the metaphor, or the expression, remained, consecrated into a proverb!

Such was the origin of those memorable sentences by which men learnt to think and to speak appositely; they were precepts which no man could contradict, at a time when authority was valued more than opinion, and experience preferred to novelty.

The proverbs of a father became the inheritance of a son; the mistress of a family perpetuated hers through her household; the workman condensed some traditional secret of his craft into a proverbial expression.

When countries are not yet populous, and property has not yet produced great inequalities in its ranks, every day will show them how "the drunkard and the glutton come to poverty, and drowsiness clothes a man with rags."

At such a period he who gave counsel gave wealth.

It might therefore have been decided, _a priori_, that the most homely proverbs would abound in the most ancient writers--and such we find in Hesiod; a poet whose learning was not drawn from books.

It could only have been in the agricultural state that this venerable bard could have indicated a state of repose by this rustic proverb:-- [Greek: Pedalion men uper kapnou katadeio] Hang your plough-beam o'er the hearth!

The envy of rival workmen is as justly described by a reference to the humble manufacturers of earthenware as by the elevated jealousies of the literati and the artists of a more polished age.

The famous proverbial verse in Hesiod's Works and Days-- [Greek: Kai kerameus keramei koteei], is literally, "The potter is hostile to the potter!"

The admonition of the poet to his brother, to prefer a friendly accommodation to a litigious lawsuit, has fixed a paradoxical proverb often applied,-- [Greek: Pleon emisu pantos], The half is better than the whole!

In the progress of time, the stock of popular proverbs received accessions from the highest sources of human intelligence; as the philosophers of antiquity formed their collections, they increased in "weight and number."

Erasmus has pointed out some of these sources, in the responses of oracles; the allegorical symbols of Pythagoras; the verses of the poets; allusions to historical incidents; mythology and apologue; and other recondite origins.

Such dissimilar matters, coming from all quarters, were melted down into this vast body of aphoristic knowledge.

Those "WORDS OF THE WISE and their DARK SAYINGS," as they are distinguished in that large collection which bears the name of the great Hebrew monarch, at length seem to have required commentaries; for what else can we infer of the enigmatic wisdom of the sages, when the royal paroemiographer classes among their studies, that of "_understanding a proverb and the interpretation_?"

This elevated notion of "the dark sayings of the wise" accords with the bold conjecture of their origin which the Stagyrite has thrown out, who considered them as the wrecks of an ancient philosophy which had been lost to mankind by the fatal revolutions of all human things, and that those had been saved from the general ruin by their pithy elegance and their diminutive form; like those marine shells found on the tops of mountains, the relics of the Deluge!

Even at a later period, the sage of Cheronea prized them among the most solemn mysteries; and Plutarch has described them in a manner which proverbs may even still merit: "Under the veil of these curious sentences are hid those germs of morals which the masters of philosophy have afterwards developed into so many volumes."

At the highest period of Grecian genius, the tragic and the comic poets introduced into their dramas the proverbial style.

St. Paul quotes a line which still remains among the first exercises of our school-pens:-- Evil communications corrupt good manners.

It is a verse found in a fragment of Menander the comic poet: [Greek: Phtheirousin hethe chresth' homiliai kakai].

As this verse is a proverb, and the apostle, and indeed the highest authority, Jesus himself, consecrates the use of proverbs by their occasional application, it is uncertain whether St. Paul quotes the Grecian poet, or only repeats some popular adage.

Proverbs were bright shafts in the Greek and Latin quivers; and when Bentley, by a league of superficial wits, was accused of pedantry for his use of some ancient proverbs, the sturdy critic vindicated his taste by showing that Cicero constantly introduced Greek proverbs into his writings,--that Scaliger and Erasmus loved them, and had formed collections drawn from the stores of antiquity.

Some difficulty has occurred in the definition.

Proverbs must be distinguished from proverbial phrases, and from sententious maxims; but as proverbs have many faces, from their miscellaneous nature, the class itself scarcely admits of any definition.

When Johnson defined a proverb to be "a short sentence frequently repeated by the people," this definition would not include the most curious ones, which have not always circulated among the populace, nor even belong to them; nor does it designate the vital qualities of a proverb.

The pithy quaintness of old Howell has admirably described the ingredients of an exquisite proverb to be _sense, shortness, and salt_.

A proverb is distinguished from a maxim or an apophthegm by that brevity which condenses a thought or a metaphor, where one thing is said and another is to be applied.

This often produces wit, and that quick pungency which excites surprise, but strikes with conviction; this gives it an epigrammatic turn.

George Herbert entitled the small collection which he formed "Jacula Prudentium," Darts or Javelins!

something hurled and striking deeply; a characteristic of a proverb which possibly Herbert may have borrowed from a remarkable passage in Plato's dialogue of "Protagoras or the Sophists."

The influence of proverbs over the minds and conversations of a whole people is strikingly illustrated by this philosopher's explanation of the term _to laconise_,--the mode of speech peculiar to the Lacedaemonians.

This people affected to appear _unlearned_, and seemed only emulous to excel the rest of the Greeks in fortitude and in military skill.

According to Plato's notion, this was really a political artifice, with a view to conceal their pre-eminent wisdom.

With the jealousy of a petty state, they attempted to confine their renowned sagacity within themselves, and under their military to hide their contemplative character!

The philosopher assures those who in other cities imagined they _laconised_, merely by imitating the severe exercises and the other warlike manners of the Lacedaemonians, that they were grossly deceived; and thus curiously describes the sort of wisdom which this singular people practised.

"If any one wish to converse with the meanest of the Lacedaemonians, he will at first find him, for the most part, apparently despicable in conversation; but afterwards, when a proper opportunity presents itself, this same mean person, like a _skilful jaculator, will hurl a sentence_, worthy of attention, _short and contorted_; so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no respect superior to a boy!

That _to laconise_, therefore, consists much more in philosophising than in the love of exercise, is understood by some of the present age, and was known to the ancients, they being persuaded that the ability of _uttering such sentences_ as these is the province of a man perfectly learned.

The seven sages were emulators, lovers, and disciples of the _Lacedaemonian erudition_.

Their wisdom was a thing of this kind, viz.

_short sentences uttered by each, and worthy to be remembered_.

These men, assembling together, consecrated to Apollo the first fruits of their wisdom; writing in the Temple of Apollo, at Delphi, those sentences which are celebrated by all men, viz.

_Know thyself!

_ and _Nothing too much!

_ But on what account do I mention these things?

To show that _the mode of philosophy among the ancients was a certain laconic diction_."

[29] The "laconisms" of the Lacedaemonians evidently partook of the proverbial style: they were, no doubt, often proverbs themselves.

The very instances which Plato supplies of this "laconising" are two most venerable proverbs.

All this elevates the science of PROVERBS, and indicates that these abridgments of knowledge convey great results, with a parsimony of words prodigal of sense.

They have, therefore, preserved many "a short sentence, NOT repeated by the people."

It is evident, however, that the earliest writings of every people are marked by their most homely, or domestic proverbs; for these were more directly addressed to their wants.

Franklin, who may be considered as the founder of a people who were suddenly placed in a stage of civil society which as yet could afford no literature, discovered the philosophical cast of his genius, when he filled his almanacs with proverbs, by the ingenious contrivance of framing them into a connected discourse, delivered by an old man attending an auction.

"These proverbs," he tells us, "which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, when their scattered counsels were brought together, made a great impression.

They were reprinted in Britain, in a large sheet of paper, and stuck up in houses: and were twice translated in France, and distributed among their poor parishioners."

The same occurrence had happened with us ere we became a reading people.

Sir Thomas Elyot, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, describing the ornaments of a nobleman's house, among his hangings, and plate, and pictures, notices the engraving of proverbs "on his plate and vessels, which served the guests with a most opportune counsel and comments."

Later even than the reign of Elizabeth our ancestors had proverbs always before them, on everything that had room for a piece of advice on it; they had them painted in their tapestries, stamped on the most ordinary utensils, on the blades of their knives,[30] the borders of their plates,[31] and "conned them out of goldsmiths' rings."

[32] The usurer, in Robert Greene's "Groat's worth of Wit," compressed all his philosophy into the circle of his ring, having learned sufficient Latin to understand the proverbial motto of "Tu tibi cura!"

The husband was reminded of his lordly authority when he only looked into his trencher, one of its learned aphorisms having descended to us,-- The calmest husbands make the stormiest wives.

The English proverbs of the populace, most of which are still in circulation, were collected by old John Heywood.

[33] They are arranged by Tusser for "the parlour--the guest's chamber--the hall--table-lessons," &c. Not a small portion of our ancient proverbs were adapted to rural life, when our ancestors lived more than ourselves amidst the works of God, and less among those of men.

[34] At this time, one of our old statesmen, in commending the art of compressing a tedious discourse into a few significant phrases, suggested the use of proverbs in diplomatic intercourse, convinced of the great benefit which would result to the negotiators themselves, as well as to others!

I give a literary curiosity of this kind.

A member of the House of Commons, in the reign of Elizabeth, made a speech entirely composed of the most homely proverbs.

The subject was a bill against double payments of book-debts.

Knavish tradesmen were then in the habit of swelling out their book-debts with those who took credit, particularly to their younger customers.

One of the members who began to speak "for very fear shook," and stood silent.

The nervous orator was followed by a blunt and true representative of the famed governor of Barataria, delivering himself thus--"It is now my chance to speak something, and that without humming or hawing.

I think this law is a good law.

Even reckoning makes long friends.

As far goes the penny as the penny's master.

_Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt.

_ Pay the reckoning overnight and ye shall not be troubled in the morning.

If ready money be _mensura publica_, let every one cut his coat according to his cloth.

When his old suit is in the wane, let him stay till that his money bring a new suit in the increase."

[35] Another instance of the use of proverbs among our statesmen occurs in a manuscript letter of Sir Dudley Carlton, written in 1632, on the impeachment of Lord Middlesex, who, he says, is "this day to plead his own cause in the Exchequer-chamber, about an account of four-score thousand pounds laid to his charge.

How his lordship sped I know not, but do remember well the French proverb, _Qui mange de l'oy du Roy chiera une plume quarante ans apres_.

'Who eats of the king's goose, will void a feather forty years after!'

" This was the era of proverbs with us; for then they were _spoken_ by all ranks of society.

The free use of trivial proverbs got them into disrepute; and as the abuse of a thing raises a just opposition to its practice, a slender wit affecting "a cross humour," published a little volume of "Crossing of Proverbs, Cross-answers, and Cross-humours."

He pretends to contradict the most popular ones; but he has not always the genius to strike at amusing paradoxes.

[36] Proverbs were long the favourites of our neighbours; in the splendid and refined court of Louis the Fourteenth they gave rise to an odd invention.

They plotted comedies and even fantastical ballets from their subjects.

In these Curiosities of Literature I cannot pass by such eccentric inventions unnoticed.

A COMEDY _of proverbs_ is described by the Duke de la Valliere, which was performed in 1634 with prodigious success.

He considers that this comedy ought to be ranked among farces; but it is gay, well-written, and curious for containing the best proverbs, which are happily introduced in the dialogue.

A more extraordinary attempt was a BALLET _of proverbs_.

Before the opera was established in France, the ancient ballets formed the chief amusement of the court, and Louis the Fourteenth himself joined with the performers.

The singular attempt of forming a pantomimical dance out of proverbs is quite French; we have a "ballet des proverbes, danse par le Roi, in 1654." At every proverb the scene changed, and adapted itself to the subject.

I shall give two or three of the _entrees_ that we may form some notion of these _capriccios_.

The proverb was--- _Tel menace qui a grand peur.

_ He threatens who is afraid.

The scene was composed of swaggering scaramouches and some honest cits, who at length beat them off.

At another _entree_ the proverb was-- _L'occasion fait le larron.

_ Opportunity makes the thief.

Opportunity was acted by le Sieur Beaubrun, but it is difficult to conceive how the real could personify the abstract personage.

The thieves were the Duke d'Amville and Monsieur de la Chesnaye.

Another _entree_ was the proverb of-- _Ce qui vient de la flute s'en va au tambour.

_ What comes by the pipe goes by the tabor.

A loose dissipated officer was performed by le Sieur l'Anglois; the _Pipe_ by St. Aignan, and the _Tabor_ by le Sieur le Comte!

In this manner every proverb was _spoken in action_, the whole connected by dialogue.

More must have depended on the actors than the poet.

[37] The French long retained this fondness for proverbs; for they still have dramatic compositions entitled _proverbes_, on a more refined plan.

Their invention is so recent, that the term is not in their great dictionary of Trevoux.

These _proverbes_ are dramas of a single act, invented by Carmontel, who possessed a peculiar vein of humour, but who designed them only for private theatricals.

Each _proverb_ furnished a subject for a few scenes, and created a situation powerfully comic: it is a dramatic amusement which does not appear to have reached us, but one which the celebrated Catherine of Russia delighted to compose for her own society.

Among the middle classes of society to this day, we may observe that certain family proverbs are traditionally preserved: the favourite saying of a father is repeated by the sons; and frequently the conduct of a whole generation has been influenced by such domestic proverbs.

This may be perceived in many of the mottos of our old nobility, which seem to have originated in some habitual proverb of the founder of the family.

In ages when proverbs were most prevalent, such pithy sentences would admirably serve in the ordinary business of life, and lead on to decision, even in its greater exigencies.

Orators, by some lucky proverb, without wearying their auditors, would bring conviction home to their bosoms: and great characters would appeal to a proverb, or deliver that which in time by its aptitude became one.

When Nero was reproached for the ardour with which he gave himself up to the study of music, he replied to his censurers by the Greek proverb, "An artist lives everywhere."

The emperor answered in the spirit of Rousseau's system, that every child should be taught some trade.

When Caesar, after anxious deliberation, decided on the passage of the Rubicon (which very event has given rise to a proverb), rousing himself with a start of courage, he committed himself to Fortune, with that proverbial expression on his lips, used by gamesters in desperate play: having passed the Rubicon, he exclaimed, "The die is cast!"

The answer of Paulus AEmilius to the relations of his wife, who had remonstrated with him on his determination to separate himself from her against whom no fault could be alleged, has become one of our most familiar proverbs.

This hero acknowledged the excellences of his lady; but, requesting them to look on his shoe, which appeared to be well made, he observed, "None of you know where the shoe pinches!"

He either used a proverbial phrase, or by its aptness it has become one of the most popular.

There are, indeed, proverbs connected with the characters of eminent men.

They were either their favourite ones, or have originated with themselves.

Such a collection would form a historical curiosity.

To the celebrated Bayard are the French indebted for a military proverb, which some of them still repeat, "_Ce que le gantelet gagne le gorgerin le mange_"--"What the gauntlet gets, the gorget consumes."

That reflecting soldier well calculated the profits of a military life, which consumes, in the pomp and waste which are necessary for its maintenance, the slender pay it receives, and even what its rapacity sometimes acquires.

The favourite proverb of Erasmus was _Festina lente_!

--"Hasten slowly!"

[38] He wished it be inscribed wherever it could meet our eyes, on public buildings, and on our rings and seals.

One of our own statesmen used a favourite sentence, which has enlarged our stock of national proverbs.

Sir Amias Pawlet, when he perceived too much hurry in any business, was accustomed to say, "Stay awhile, to make an end the sooner."

Oliver Cromwell's coarse but descriptive proverb conveys the contempt he felt for some of his mean and troublesome coadjutors: "Nits will be lice!"

The Italians have a proverb, which has been occasionally applied to certain political personages:-- _Egli e quello che Dio vuole;

E sara quello che Dio vorra!

_ He is what God pleases;

He shall be what God wills!

Ere this was a proverb, it had served as an embroidered motto on the mystical mantle of Castruccio Castracani.

That military genius, who sought to revolutionise Italy, and aspired to its sovereignty, lived long enough to repent the wild romantic ambition which provoked all Italy to confederate against him; the mysterious motto he assumed entered into the proverbs of his country!

The Border proverb of the Douglases, "It were better to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep," was adopted by every Border chief, to express, as Sir Walter Scott observes, what the great Bruce had pointed out, that the woods and hills of their country were their safest bulwarks, instead of the fortified places which the English surpassed their neighbours in the arts of assaulting or defending.

These illustrations indicate one of the sources of proverbs; they have often resulted from the spontaneous emotions or the profound reflections of some extraordinary individual, whose energetic expression was caught by a faithful ear, never to perish!