OF ALL NATIONS: ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES AND COMMENTS. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A SUMMARY OF ANCIENT PASTIMES, WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, AND ADVERTISEMENT: In making the present Selection of Proverbs, the fist object has been to glean the wisest and best in the Sayings of all Nations; collecting not merely their ethical maxims, but whatever is characteristic of national manners, humour, and intelligence. With respect to arrangement, I have not exactly followed the plan of any of my predecessors, but have endeavoured to combine the double advantages of alphabetic order, with facility for referring to any particular description of proverbs, according to its subject. The authors to whom I have chiefly resorted, are, Ray's English Proverbs, Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Mackintosh's Gaelic Proverbs, the French and Italian Proverbs of Du. bois and Veneroni, Collins' Spanish Proverbs, the Glossary of Archdeacon Nares, Grose's Provincial Glossary, D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, Todd's Johnson; with seveial minor works, too numerous to mention. It is necessary to bear in mind, our's is only a SELECTION to have given the entire proverbs of any people, would have far exceeded the limits of the present plan, and consequently I have gleaned from each nation what seemed worthy of modern taste and refinement. Where a preverb appeared curious or important, the original or parallel proverb in other languages has been retained: this can be attended with little inconvenience to the English reader, and may be interesting to the scholar, and those who wish to be accurately acquainted with the spirit and origin of the Old Sayings. Besides, there are persons so fastidious as to refrain from quoting a proverb in plain English, who would not scruple to use it in the Latin, Italian, French, or Spanish languages. To each proverb is... ded the name of the country to which it belongs, when that could be ascertained; and when no name is affixed the proverb may generally be concluded to be English. but there is nothing so uncertain as the derivation of proverbs, the same proverb being often found in all nations, and it is impossible to assign its paternity. For this, two reasons may be given. Proverbs are founded on nature; and as nature and man are generally uniform, it is no wonder that different people, under similar circumstances, have come to similar conclusions. Another reason is, their short and portable form, which adapted them for communication from one nation to another. The exposition of ANCIENT PASTIMES, CUSTOMS, &c. which forms the second part, was necessary to elucidate the proverbs; one exhibits the mind; the other, the living manners of the period. In this portion of the work, I chiefly relied on Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People, Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, and the voluminous works of Grose. "VULGAR ERRORS" form the third subject, and complete the picture of the olden time: these I chiefly collected from Sir Thomas Brown's Inquiry into Common and Vulgar Errors, Fovargue's Catalogue of Vulgar Errors, and Barrington's Observations on the Ancient Statutes. At the conclusion is placed under a different arrangement, an "Analysis of the Wisdom of the Ancients, and of the Fathers of the Church :" we have thus the wisdom of the people derived from experience, to contrast with the wisdom of the Schools of Poets, Philosophers, and the fonnders of the Christain faith. The intention is, to form a supplemental volume on the "Wisdom of the Moderns," including the beauties, ranged aphoristically, 'of the most celebrated writers, from the period of the revival of learning to the present time. The work will then be complete, condensing, in a small Compass, the essence of universal knowledge, natural and acquired. INTRODUCTION. PROVERBS are the book of life, the salt of knowledge, and the gatherings of ages. Like pebbles smoothed by the flood, they have flowed down the stream of time, divested of extraneous matter, rounded into harmonious couplets, or clenched into useful maxims. Less ornate and redundant than the productions of modern literature; they are far more instructive they are the manual of practical wisdom compiled from the school of experience; and their precepts, as the actual results of real life, circumstance, and occasion, are far preferable to the erring deductions of the speculative inqui rer. : From the antiquity of PROVERBS, they may be defined the primitive language of mankind, in which knowledge was preserved, prior to the invention of letters. In the early stages of society, its progress is retarded by three causes: the scarcity of words to express ideas; the feebleness of memory, from the absence of intellectual exertion; and the want of a durable character, by which the discoveries of one generation may be retained and transmitted to another. Proverbs are well adapted for removing these first obstacles to improvement: by a figurative expression, they supply the place of verbal description; their brevity is an aid to memory; while, by being connected with local circumstances and surrounding objects, they form a visible type, in which passing occurrences and observations may be recorded. Accordingly, we find that all nations have had recourse to aphoristic language, and doubtless it was in this style the first knowledge of the world, its laws, morals, husbandry, and observations on the weather, were preserved. It would be an error, however, to suppose that popular adages comprise only the vulgar philosophy of the people, since the highest sources of human intelligence have contributed to the great intellectual reservoir. In the verses of poets, in the classic historians of Greece and Rome, in the ssyings of philosophers and great statesmen, in the responses of oracles, the maxims of the eastern magi and sages, the learning of the Chinese and Hindoos, the writings of the Fathers and Schoolmen, and those of later date, we often detect the germ of those ancient thoughts which now circulate under the humble guise of an old saying. There is scarcely a celebrated name from the days of HESIOD, who has not added to the |