—"Marriage of Wit and Wisdom," 1570.
CHAPTER IV
National Idiosyncrasies—The Seven Sages of Greece—Know Thyself—The Laconic "If"—Ancient Greek Proverbs—Roman Proverbs—The Proverbs of Scotland: Strong Vein of Humour in them—Spanish and Italian Proverbs—The Proverbs of France—The "Comédie des Proverbes"—The Proverbs of Spain: their Popularity and Abundance; Historic Interest: their Bibliography—Italian Proverbs: their Characteristics—The Proverbs of Germany—Chinese Adages: their Excellence—Japanese Proverbs: their Poetry and Beauty—Arab Sayings: their Servility: their Humour—Eastern Delight in Stories—African Sayings: their pithy Wisdom—The Proverb-philosophy of the Talmud.
While we find a striking similarity existing between the proverbs of various peoples, many being absolutely identical, and others teaching the same truths under somewhat different external guise; there is also in many cases a certain local and individual colouring that gives added interest.
We see, too, national idiosyncrasies coming to the front in the greater prominence given to proverbs having a bearing in some particular direction. Thus, a poetic and imaginative people will specially dwell on proverbs of a picturesque and refined type, while a thrifty and cautious race will hold in especial esteem the inculcation of saving, of early rising, of steady labour, the avoidance of debt and suretyship. A more impulsive people will care but little for such thraldom, and will teach in its sayings the delights of the present, the pursuit of the pleasures rather than the duties of life, and the wild doctrine of revenge against those who thwart their desires; while an oppressed and downtrodden race will very faithfully reflect the oppression under which they lie by the sayings that find most favour amongst them.
Our English proverbs, like our language, have come to us from many sources; and while we have some little store that we may claim as of home-growth, the greater part has been judiciously borrowed. We may fairly ascribe to our changeable climate such a warning adage as the advice to "Make hay while the sun shines"; and when a settler on the prairies of the West clothes the excellent doctrine that every man for himself should perform the disagreeable tasks that come in his way, and not seek to transfer them to other people, in the formula, "Every man must skin his own skunk," we feel the sentiment to be redolent of the soil of its birth. The picture it presents to us is so entirely American that it is quite needless to search for its origin in the folk-lore of Wessex or on the banks of the Indus.[91:A]
The greater number of the proverbs of ancient Greece were fraught with allusions to the mythology, poetry, and national history of Hellas, and thus form a valuable testimony to the general high level of intellectual training of this wonderful people. The "Adagia" of Erasmus contains, as the result of the search of many years amongst the literary remains of the classical authors, some five thousand of these ancient sayings. Many that, from their Latin dress we ascribe to the Romans, were really derived from Greek or still earlier sources.
It will be recalled that those who, from their pre-eminent wisdom, were entitled, the Seven Sages of Greece, each inscribed in the Temple of Apollo one sentence of concentrated wisdom. The best known and most freely quoted of these was the "Know thyself," the contribution of Solon of Athens; and the more we reflect on this the more we realise its profundity. To know thyself—to know, for example, thy possibilities of health and strength for strenuous bodily or mental labour, to know thy worldly status, and what of influence is there open to thee or closed against thee; to know thyself, not as the crowd regards thee, but in all the secret workings of thy heart, controlling thy actions, biassing thy thoughts, influencing thy motives; to step aside out of the bustle of life and quietly take stock of thyself; to know how thou standest in view of eternity—that is wisdom. The maxim of Chilo of Sparta was "Consider the end," and that of Bias of Priene the sad indictment, "Most men are bad." Thales of Miletos declared, and the yet greater and wiser Solomon was in accord—"Who hateth suretyship is sure." Periander of Corinth sang the praise of honest work in "Nothing is impossible to industry";[92:A] and Pittacos of Mitylene warned his hearers and pupils to "Seize Time by the forelock." The seventh, Cleobulos of Lindos, pinned his faith on the golden mean, "Avoid extremes." These maxims passed into general circulation and adoption, and thus became of proverbial rank. They do not strike one as being of at all equal value, but there is no doubt that a man who was fortified, not only by the knowledge of these precepts, but, more important yet, by their practice, would be equipped to face unscathed all the possibilities of life.
