This gentleman was born in London in 1810, and educated, first at the Charterhouse school, and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A., M.A., and D.C.L. The author of many works, both in prose and verse, Mr. Tupper has been hardly dealt with by the critics, and the parodists.
They appear to have ignored such of his writings as have any merit, in order to hunt most mercilessly to death his Proverbial Philosophy, which, though it has run through many editions, is inferior to much else that he has written.
The reasons for this perversity on their part cannot here be considered, only the Parodies as they exist can be dealt with.
The following lines, which were written many years ago by “Cuthbert Bede” in his Shilling Book of Beauty, neatly sum up Proverbial Philosophy:—
Thoughts may abide in the brain, yet how few have the wit to extract them;
Many may know of Proverbs, yet could not for worlds have devised them.
All are not gifted the same: there are brains that are stupid and addled;
There are those that are clear as the stream,—the pellucid water that floweth
Under the bridges, that bind the Surrey shore unto London.