Footnotes
[716:4] Bohn's Classical Library.
[717:1] Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?—Plutarch: Natural Questions, ix.
The venerable Bede relates that Bishop Adain (a. d. 651) gave to a company about to take a journey by sea "some holy oil, saying, 'I know that when you go abroad you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but do you remember to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind shall cease immediately.'"—Ecclesiastical History, book iii. chap. xiv.
In Sparks's edition of Franklin's Works, vol. vi. p. 354, there are letters between Franklin, Brownrigg, and Parish on the stilling of waves by means of oil.
To man the earth seems altogether
No more a mother, but a step-dame rather.
Du Bartas: Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, third day.
[717:3] He is born naked, and falls a whining at the first.—Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, mem. 3, subsect. 10.
And when I was born I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature; and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do.—The Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 3.
It was the custom among the ancients to place the new-born child upon the ground immediately after its birth.
[718:1] This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle in his Natural History, as also by some modern physiologists.
[718:2] See Tennyson, page [632].
[718:3] See Burns, page [446].
[718:4] Omne ignotum pro magnifico (Everything that is unknown is taken to be grand).—Tacitus: Agricola, 30.
[718:5] See Sir Thomas Browne, page [218].
[718:6] Madame d'Abrantes relates that when Bonaparte was in Cairo he sent for a serpent-detecter (Psylli) to remove two serpents that had been seen in his house. He having enticed one of them from his hiding-place, caught it in one hand, just below the jaw-bone, in such a manner as to oblige the mouth to open, when spitting into it, the effect was like magic: the reptile appeared struck with instant death.—Memoirs, vol. i. chap. lix.
[719:1] This is alluded to by Cicero in his letters to Atticus, and is mentioned by Ælian (Animated Nature, book vi. chap. 41). It is like our proverb, "Rats leave a sinking ship."
[719:2] See Burton, page [186].
Not unlike the bear which bringeth forth
In the end of thirty dayes a shapeless birth;
But after licking, it in shape she drawes,
And by degrees she fashions out the pawes,
The head, and neck, and finally doth bring
To a perfect beast that first deformed thing.
Du Bartas: Divine Weekes and Workes, first week, first day.
[719:3] See Phædrus, page [715].
[719:4] See Shakespeare, page [152].
[720:1] See Publius Syrus, page [708].
[720:2] A maxim of Cato.
[720:3] See Shakespeare, page [46]. Also Lover, page [583].
Numero deus impare gaudet (The god delights in odd numbers).—Virgil: Eclogæ, 8, 75.
[720:4] Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit.—Erasmus.
The form generally quoted, "Nulla dies sine linea" (No day without a line), is not attested.
[721:1] Ne supra crepidam sutor judicaret (Let not a shoemaker judge above his shoe).
QUINTILIAN. 42-118 a. d.
We give to necessity the praise of virtue.[721:2]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, i. 8, 14.
A liar should have a good memory.[721:3]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, iv. 2, 91.
Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake.[721:4]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, vi. 2, 30.
Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.[721:5]
Institutiones Oratoriæ, x. 7, 21.