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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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without the fantasticalness of some interpretations . As a selection of Proverbs it is useful ; and the running commentary makes a " building of the bricks . " Mr . Trench properly calls attention , to the distinction between proverbs and aphorisms , arising from the latter having received the baptism of popularity : unless a phrase have become popular and lost its authorship in the collective parentage of the nation , it is not a proverb . He alludes to the endless store of short wise sayings in Goethe , which are however not proverbs , simply because , although often quoted , they are his—( Mr . Trench will permit us to correct a trivial oversight he commits in crediting Goethe with the authorship of the phrase , " Heaven and earth light in vain against a dunce , "—it is in Schiller)—and he adds : —
" Herein in great part the force of a proverb lies , namely , that it has already received the stamp of popular allowance . A man might produce , ( for what another has done he might do ngain , ) something as witty , as forcible , as much to the point , of his own ; which should be hammered at the instant on his own anvil . Yet still it is not the wisdom of many ; it has not stood the test of experience ; it wants that which the other already haa , but which it only after a long period could acquire—the consenting voice of many and at different times to its wisdom and truth A man employing a long recognised proverb is not speaking of his own , but uttering a faith and conviction very far wider t han that of himself or of any single man ; and it is because he is so doing that proverbs , in Lord Bacon ' s words , ' serve not only for ornament and delight , but also for active and civil use ; as being the edge tools of speech which cut and penetrate the knots of business and affairs . ' for
" The proverb has in fact the same advantage over the word now produced the first time , which for present currency and value has the recognised coin of the realm over the rude unstamped ore newly dug up from the mine . This last may possess an equal amount of fineness ; but the other has been stamped long ago , has already passed often from man to man , and found free acceptance with all : it inspires therefore a confidence which the ruder metal cannot at present challenge . And the same satisfaction which the educated man finds in referring the particular matter before him to the universal law which rules it , a plainer man finds in the appeal to a proverb . He takes refuge , that is , as each man bo gladly does , from his mere self and single fallible judgment , in a larger experience and wider conviction . The explanation of the word ? proverb' I believe to lie here . One who uses it , uses it . pro verbo ; he employs for and instead of his own individual word , this more general word which is every man ' s . " Shall we not then venture to define Proverbs as the happy foundlings of the national genius ? - ¦ - -
,, , In praising Mr . Trench ' s commentary we must not be understood as always assenting to his opinions . In so vague a matter as that of interpretation every latitude is allowed . For example : — " How curious again is the confession which speaks out in another Italian proverb , that the maintenance of the Romish system and the study of the Holy Scripture cannot go together . It is this : With the gospel one becomes an heretic . No doubt with the study of the Word of God one does become an heretic , in the Italian sense of the word ; and therefore it is only prudently done to put all obstacles in the way of that study , to assign three years' and four years' imprisonment with hard labour to as many as shall dare to peruse it ; yet certainly it is not a little remarkable that such a confession should have embodied itself in the popular utterances of the nation . "
Yea , the proverb will bear that interpretation ; yet it will bear another equally well . It may mean that precious things injudiciously handled will lead to destruction , or as Shakspeare says , " Lilies that fester smell worse than Avecds" —indeed is not this the more probable interpretation of the two ? , Here is a charming passage on the nationality of proverbs : — " Of how many , for example , we may note the manner in which they cloth themselves in an outward form and shape , borrowed from , or suggested by , the peculiar scenery or circumstances or history of their own land ; so that they could scarcely have come into existence , not at least in the shape ; which they now wear , anywhere besides . Thus our own , Make hay while ihc sun shines , is truly English , anil could have had its birth only under such variable skies as ours , —not certainly in those southern lands whore , during the summer time at least , the sun always
shines . Jn the same way there is a fine Cornish proverb in regard of obstinate wrongheads , who will take no counsel except from calamities , who dash themselves io pieces si gainst obstacles , which with a little prudence and foresight they might have avoided . It is this : J / e who will not . he ruled by the rudder , must , be ruled hi / the rock . It sets us at once upon souk ; rocky and wreck-strewn coast ; wo feel that it could never hiwo been the proverb of an inland people . J ) o not talk Arabic in the house of a Moort —\\ v . \ t is , because then . ) thy imperfect | piowl <; dgc will bo detected nt oni-e , —this we should confidently atlirm to bo Spanish , wherever we met it . Jiiq and empty , like the ' Heidelberg liui , could have its home only in ( Jormany ; thut enormous vessel , known as the Ileidolbcrg tun , constructed to contain noarly 300 , 000 flasks , having now stood tjinpty for hundreds of years . As regards too the following , Not every parish priest can wear Doctor Luther ' s shoes , Neither could there be
wo could bo in no doubt to what people it appertains . any mistake about this Holemn Turkish proverb : J ) ealh is a black camel which kneels at every man ' s (/ ale , in ho far at least an that it would be at once ascribed to tho Enxt . * And this , The world is a carcase , and they who (/ aliter round it are dogs , plainly proclaims itself sis belonging to those Mastern lands , where tho unowned « logs prowling about , tho streets of a eily aro tho natural wuveiigerH , that would assemble round h cumiso thrown in tho way . Ho too 1 bo form which our own proverb , . Alan ' s extremity , ( lad's opportunity , assumes among this Jews , namely this , When the tale of bricks is doubled , Moses comes , plainly roots itself in tho ' eurly ' hiNtoryof the nation , being an allusion to Nxod . v . <)—ID , and without a knowledge of that history would be unintelligible altogether . " How the Hiiiuo thought is variously expressed : —
"Tlum our own , yl burnt child fears the fire , is good ; but that of many lon ui'H , A scalded day fears cold water , is boUer Hfill . Ours does buf , express ibiit U , oHo wl , 0 ] mvti suffered oncii will henceforward be timid in respect of ( hat sumo thing iv ( mi wbich they have HuHe-red ; but flint other fho tendency to exn ^ gerntu Hueh it-urn , ho t . lisit : now they shall fenr even where no fear is . And the fact that so it , will !» ., clothes itself in an almost , iulinite variety of forms . Thus one Italian proverb w \ ys : A day which has been beaten with a . stick , is afraid of its shadow ; nml another , which could only have had its birth in the sunny South ,
where the glancing but harmless lizard so often darts across your path : He who 7 ias been bitten by a serpent is alarmed by a lizard . With a little variation from this the Jewish Rabbis had said long before : Ho who 7 ias been bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope ' s end ; even that which bears so remote a resemblance to a serpent as this does , shall now inspire him with terror ; and the Cingalese , still expressing the same thought , but with imagery borrowed from their own tropic clime : The man who has received a beating from a firebrand , runs away at sight of a firefly . " This again on " extremes meet "—
" Or , again , consider such a proverb as the short but well-known one : Extremes ¦ meet . Short as it is , it is yet a motto on which whole volumes might be written , which is finding its illustration every day , —in small and in great , —in things trivial and in things most important , —in the histories of single men , and in those of nations and of Churches . Consider some of its every-day fulfilments , —old age ending in second childhood , —cold performing the effects of heat , and scorching as heat would have done , —the extremities alike of joy and of grief finding utterance in tears , the second singular ' thou' instead of the plural ' yon / employed in more languages than one to inferiors and to God , never to equals ; just as servants and children are alike called by the Christian name , but not those who stand in tl : # midway of intimacy between them . Or to take some further illustrations from tha
moral world , of extremes meeting ; observe how often those who begin their lives as spendthrifts end them as misers ; how often the flatterer and tho calumniator meet in the same person ; out of a senso of which the Italians say well : Who paints me before blackens vie behind ; observe how those who to-day would sacrifice to Paul as a God , will to-morrow stone him as a malefactor . ( Acts xiv . 18 , 19 ; cf . xxviii . 4—6 . ) Or see again in what close alliance hardness and softness , cruelty and self-indulgence , are continually found ; or in law , how the smnmumjus becomes the summa injuria , as in the case of Shylock ' s pound of flesh , which was indeed no more than was in the bond . Or observe on a greater scale , as so lately in Trance , how a wild and frantic democracy may be transformed by the base trick of a conjuror into an . atrocious military tyranny . "
Is Mr . Trench assured that the proverb he finds in the Alexandrian Fathers— " The thyrsus-bearers are many , but the bacchants few "—ia properly a proverb ? that is to say , the " foundling" without a parent ? It occurs in Plato , slightly varied , as if a phrase of his own ; and from its felicity and elegance may easily have become so familiar as to have passed into a proverb , very much as Goethe ' s orphic sayings have with us .
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fcm E ¥ gNlGP «® WOTH ) THE R&PP ^ Ol SPBRBTTS . [ The following Letter was written at our request . The writer , a German friend , whose integrity and clear-headedness would command attention to whatever he might assert , informed us of his proposed visit to a house where the Rappitcs were to exhibit , and we begged him to furnish us with a report . We print his letter without any alteration : its statements will , we think , set the reader speculating .
Let it be distinctly borne in mind , however , that in printing this Letter we give no countenance whatever to the pretended explanation of " Rapping . " We have our own views of the jugglery by which the "ghosts " are made to communicate with persons willing to pay for the interview , and in a very short time we hope to lay before our readers something like an experimental result . ] My dear Sir , —When I proposed to give you a report on these new prophets , who , if as true as they arc new , open to us a wide and most interesting field for inquiry , overthrow ancient and modem systems of science and belief , shake to the very foundation revealed religion and
Christianity , hut , on the other hand , arc telling almost equally strong against Pantheism mid Atheism , I had not seen those prophets , expounders , mediums , or whatever you may call them , myself ; hut what I heard from a friend , a clear-sighted , well-informed , by no moans " gullible , " or over-credulous gentleman , who had paid them ii visit , had made me anxious to see and judge for myself ; and he having determined , for better satisfaction , to have the Medium ( and the spirits ) at his own house , and having kindly invited me to be present on the occasion , 1 offered to furnish you with a statement of the result of the evening , which I now , agreeably to your wish , lay before you .
We were five of us in the library , —my friend , his wife , his sister , his nephew , and myself , —when the footman , handing in a card , announced "Mrs . JIayden . " Her entrance and deportment were easy , unembarrassed , and yet not " business-like ; " her exterior rather prepossessing ; an intelligent countenance , with , perhaps , a slight touch of Yankccisin in the corner of the eye ; and the conversation soon bring established , showed that she did not lack those powers of speech so peculiar to the . citizens of the great Republic ; though certain mistakes now and then recurring in the conjugation of verbs , indicated that nhe could not have had a very fin ;! -rate education . We took our seats round the table on which the card had been placed , [ mid , — "Mr . and Mrs . W . R . Jlirydeii , L' 2 , Queen Anne-street , Cavenuish-. squarc . " Expectation created silence , now and then broken by . qiiestions in a low voice , addressed to the Medium , and by the wheels of carriages that brought guests to an evening party at a neighbouring house , and thus tnadd the otherwise very quirt sired ; liither noisy . Tho raps which the Medium and one or two of us , after we had been seated for about ten
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .
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234 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1853, page 234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1976/page/18/
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