[QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.]
A Correspondent asks: “Will the Editor of The Girl’s Own Paper be so kind as to let ‘Dora’ know through his columns, what author first made use of the phrase, ‘Oil on the troubled waters’.”
Although we cannot with absolute certainty point Dora to the first author who made use of the expression, she may be interested to know that it has its origin in antiquity.
Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) says in his Natural History (Book ii., Sect. 234)—
“Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smoothes every part which is rough.”
Plutarch (46?-120?) asks in his Symposiacs (Book viii., Question ix)—
“Why does pouring oil on the sea make it clear and calm? Is it for that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no form, nor cause any waves?”
The Venerable Bede relates in his Ecclesiastical History (completed in 735) a story bearing on this point, which he says he had from “a most creditable man in Holy Orders.”
A young priest was to set out by land, but return by water, to escort a maiden destined for the bride of King Oswy. He sought a farewell blessing from St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who gave him a cruse of 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.” A storm did arise, and the young priest, pouring oil on the waves, reduced them to a calm.