are said, "halagar con la cola, y morder con la boca," to bite while they fawn upon you and, if they are as crafty as they are malevolent, you will not discover the villany of their dispositions until they have done you some irremediable mischief; until they have alienated the minds of your friends, or raised such dissensions in your family as nothing but death will extinguish. When Iago saw that he had succeeded in exciting in Othello a suspicion of the incontinence of Desdemona, he says, exulting in the success of his villany, "Not poppy, nor mandragore, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep The ancients supposed that there were magic rings which had the power of defending those who wore them from certain diseases, inflicted, as they imagined, by inchantment or witchcraft, but even these were insufficient to protect them from the tongue of the slanderer. Dentem Dentem Dente rodere. It is one tooth biting another, was used to be said to any one attempting to hurt what was out of his reach, and could not be affected by him: or affronting one who could return the insult with interest; or having a contest with persons capable of doing him more mischief than he could do them. It has the same sense as, " verberare lapidem," beating a stone; "do not shew your teeth," we say, "when you cannot bite." The adage probably took its rise from the fable of the serpent gnawing a file, which it met with in a smith's shop, by which it made its own gums bleed but without hurting the file. Frustra Herculi. That is, should any one call Hercules a coward, who would listen to him? The adage was applied to any one speaking ill of persons of known and approved integrity and character. When Cato, whose worth had been often tried, was was accused of avarice; this, Plutarch said, was as if any one should reproach Hercules with want of courage. Ne in Nervum erumpat. The string may break; this was said to persons who, emboldened by success, were perpetually engaging in new exploits: such persons were advised by this apothegm to desist, they had done enough to shew their skill or courage; a reverse might happen, or by one wrong step they might lose all the honour or emolument they had gained. "The pitcher that goes often to the well returns broken at last." The adage takes its rise from bowmen who, by overstraining the string, at length occasion it to break, not without danger to themselves. Pluris est oculatus Testis unus, quam auriti decem. Better one eye-witness than ten who only know know a thing from hearsay; or, what we see with our own eyes, is rather to be believed than what we learn only from report, for "ver y creer, ""seeing is believing," and "ojos que no ven, coraçon que no llora," "what the eye doth not see, the heart doth not rue." In caducum Parietem inclinare. Leaning on a broken staff, which cannot support you, or "on a bruised reed which will pierce your hand and wound you;" literally upon a weak and tottering wall; metaphorically, trusting to a false friend who will betray you, or to one who is incapable of performing what he promises, or of furnishing the assistance which he undertook to afford you. Qui jacet in Terra, non habet unde cadat. He who is at the bottom can fall no lower. When plunged into the gulph of poverty and misery all fear of further distress is over, no change can take place but it must be for the better; and so unsettled are all sublunary things VOL. II. D + things that a change may always be expected, or time and use will make the greatest trouble tolerable. Hope and patience are two sove reign remedies, affording the softest cushion to lean on in adversity. "Grata superveniet quæ non sperabitur hora," a day of relief beyond expectation may come, and turn a lowering morning to a fair afternoon; or at the worst, death will at length put an end to our misery, and when a traveller arrives at the end of his journey, he soon forgets the hardships and difficulties he met with on the road. It was an observation of Seneca, that "bona rerum secundarum sunt optabilia, adversarum mirabilia," the good things which belong to prosperity, are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. Queen Catherine, who was repudiated by Henry the Eighth, used to say, that "she would not willingly endure the extremity of either fortune; but if it were so that of necessity she must undergo the one, she would be in adversity, because comfort was never wanting in that state, but still counsel and self-government were defective in the other." |