"Eat the present, and break the dish" (in which it was brought). The dish will otherwise remind you of the obligation. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. "A favour to come is better than a hundred re ceived" (Italian).1 Who was it that first defined gratitude as a lively sense of future favours? "When I confer a favour," said Louis XIV., "I make one ingrate and a hundred malcontents." Val più un piacere da farsi, che cento di quelli fatti. THE MOTE AND THE BEAM. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. In Timbs's "Things not Generally Known" it is related that, “In the reign of James I., the Scotch adventurers who came over with that monarch were greatly annoyed by persons breaking the windows of their houses; and among the instigators was Buckingham, the court favourite, who lived in a large house in St. Martin's Fields, which, from the great number of windows, was termed the Glass House. Now, the Scotchmen, in retaliation, broke the windows of Buckingham's mansion. 6 The courtier complained to the king, to whom the Scotchmen had previously applied, and the monarch replied to Buckingham, Those who live in glass houses, Steenie, should be careful how they throw stones.' Whence arose the common saying." It did not arise thence, nor was King James its inventor. This is one of a thousand instances in which a story growing out of a proverb has been presented as that proverb's origin. "Let him that has glass tiles. [panes] not throw stones at his neighbour's house" is a maxim common to the Spaniards' and Italians, and older than the time of James I. The Italians say also, "Let him that has a glass skull not take to stonethrowing."3 The kiln calls the oven burnt house. The pot calls the kettle black bottom. When negroes quarrel they always call each other "dam niggers." "The pan says to the pot, Keep off, 'll smutch me (Italian). The shovel makes "Said the raven to or you 4 the crow, 'Get out of that, blackamoor'" (Spanish). "One ass nicknames another Longears" (German).7 Dirty-nosed folk always want to wipe other folks' noses (French).8 66 "Crooked carlin!" quoth the cripple to his wife. — Scotch. "God help the fool!" said the idiot. Who more ready to call her neighbour "scold" than the arrantest scold in the parish? "A harlot repented for one night. Is there no 1 El que tiene tejados de vidrio no tire piedras al de su vicino. 2 Chi ha tegoli di vetro non tiri sassi al vicino. • Chi ha testa di vetro non faccia a' sassi. La padella dice al pajuolo, Fatti in la che tu mi tigni. 5 La pêle se moque du fourgon. • Dijó la corneja al cuervo, Quitate allá, negro. 7 Ein Esel schimpft den andern, Langohr. 8 Les morveux veulent toujours moucher les autres. police officer,' she exclaimed, to take up harlots?"" (Arab.) Point not at others' spots with a foul finger. Physician, heal thyself. "Among wonderful things," say the Arabs of Egypt, "is a sore-eyed person who is an oculist." FAULTS. EXCUSES. UNEASY CONSCIOUSNESS. Lifeless, faultless. It is a good horse that never stumbles. To which some add, "And a good wife that never grumbles." None are immaculate. "Are there not spots on the very sun?" (French.) A member of the parliament of Toulouse, apologising to the king or his minister for the judicial murder of Calas perpetrated by that body, quoted the proverb, “Il n'y a si bon cheval qui ne bronche" ("It is a good horse," &c.). He was answered, “Passe pour un cheval, mais toute l'écurie ! ' ("A horse, granted; but the whole stable !") He that shoots always right forfeits his arrow. - Welsh. But in no instance was the forfeit ever exacted, for the best archer will sometimes miss the mark, just as "The best driver will sometimes upset" (French). “A good fisherman may let an eel slip from him" (French);3 1 Le soleil lui-même, n'a-t-il pas des taches? * Il n'est si bon charretier qui ne verse. À bon pêcheur échappe anguille. 2 |