V. PROVERBS AND EPIGRAMMATIC SAYINGS.
“Proverbs, must not be passed over in our enumeration,—proverbs, the philosophy of the common people; short, pithy, homely sayings that embody the concentrated essence of the common people’s wisdom. It has been difficult to give a perfect definition of a proverb, so crowded is it with the life of shrewdness and experience; yet so easy and negligent is it, and saucy as it were. Its characteristic excellences are shortness, sense and salt. It is the wit of one man, the wisdom of thousands.”—Macbeth.
PROVERBS AND EPIGRAMMATIC SAYINGS.
“The proverbialists occupy themselves with life in all its aspects. Sometimes they simply catch the expression of men, good or bad, or photograph their actions or thoughts; more generally they pass a verdict upon them and exhort or instruct men in regard to them. * * * Some of the proverbs have a certain flavor of humor.”—Davidson.
“The wise men of old,” says Whipple, “have sent most of their morality down the stream of time in the light skiff of apothegm or epigram: and the proverbs of nations which embody the common sense of nations, have the brisk concussion of the most sparkling wit. Almost every sensible remark on folly is a witty remark. Wit is thus often but the natural language of wisdom, viewing life with a piercing and passionless eye.” The object of the present study is to consider those proverbs and other epigrammatic sayings which distinctly contain the element of wit in some form or other, and which are so liberally scattered over the pages of the Bible.
I.—The Book of Proverbs.