FOOTNOTES:
[28:A] "A wise sentence shall be rejected when it cometh out of a fool's mouth; for he will not speak it in due season."—Ecclesiasticus xx. 20.
[28:B] The following illustrate the nature of these precepts: "Gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity." "Change not a friend for any good." "Of a spark of fire a heap of coals is kindled." "How agree the kettle and the earthen pot together?" "He that can rule his tongue shall live without strife." "As the climbing up a sandy way is to the aged so is a wife full of words." "The furnace trieth the potter's vessels." "Better is the life of a poor man in a mean cottage than delicate fare in another man's house." "He that taketh away his neighbour's living slayeth him." "Every counsellor extolleth counsel." "Bountifulness is as a most fruitful garden."
[29:A] Amongst the various commentators on this book the works of Ewald, Berthean, Hitzig, Elster, Rosenmuller, Hirzel, Stuart, Umbreit, and Noyes may be commended to the reader who would desire detail and analysis.
[35:A] Quick is here used in its original sense of having life. These therefore were lively sayings. In the Apostle's creed the quick and the dead are referred to, and a quick set hedge is one of growing plants as contrasted with a mere fencing or line of palings.
[39:A] "It is a comon sayinge, ware there is no ryceyver there shoulde be no thefe." "A Christian exhortation unto customable swearers," 1575.
[39:B] A more modern utterance shrewdly says, "There is a scarcity of friendship, but none of friends."
[47:A] Somewhat similar proverbs to this are, "If you play with boys you must take boy's play," and if you "play with a fool at home he will play with you abroad."
[49:A] "The messenger (one of those dogs who are not too scornful to eat dirty puddings) caught in his hand the guinea which Hector chucked at his face."—"The Antiquary."
[57:A] Our author must not be confused with a namesake, Charles Palmer, who was Deputy Serjeant of the House of Commons, and who published "A Collection of Select Aphorisms and Maxims extracted from the most Eminent Authors." He gives eighteen hundred and thirteen of these: the copy that came into our hands was dated 1748.