leaving something to be filled up by their intelligence; while the merits of a composition are often displayed as really, if not so prominently, in what is passed over as in what is set down; in nothing more than in the just measure of the confidence which it shows in the capacities and powers of those to whom it is addressed. I would not willingly come under the condemnation, which waits on them who thus leave nothing in their inkstand; and lest I should do so, I will bring now this my final lecture to its close, and ask you to draw out for yourselves those further lessons from proverbs, which I am sure they are abundantly capable of yielding.

APPENDIX.

ON THE METRICAL LATIN PROVERBS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. (See p. 29.)

I

HAVE not seen anywhere brought together a col

lection of these medieval proverbs cast into the form of a rhyming hexameter. Erasmus, though he often illustrates the proverbs of the ancient world by those of the new, does not quote, as far as I am aware, through the whole of his enormous collection, a single one of these which occupy a middle place between the two; a fact which in its way is curiously illustrative of the degree to which the attention of the great Humanists at the revival of learning was exclusively directed to the classical literature of Greece and Rome. Yet proverbs in this form exist in considerable number; being of very various degrees of merit, as will be seen from the following selection; in which some are keen and piquant enough, while others are of very subordinate value; those which seemed to me utterly valueless—and they were not few-I have excluded altogether. The reader familiar with proverbs will detect correspondents to very many of them, besides the few which I have quoted, in one modern language or another, often in many.

Accipe, sume, cape, tria sunt gratissima Papæ.

Let me observe here, once for all, that the lengthening of
the final syllable in cape, is not to be set down to the igno-
rance or carelessness of the writer; but in the theory of
the medieval hexameter, the unavoidable stress or pause
on the first syllable of the third foot was counted sufficient
to lengthen the shortest syllable in that position.

Ad secreta poli curas extendere noli.
Ægro sanato, frustra dices, Numerato.
Amphora sub veste raro portatur honeste.
Ante Dei vultum nihil unquam restat inultum.
Ante molam primus qui venit, non molat imus.

A rule of natural equity: Prior tempore, prior jure ;—First
come, first serve.-"Whoso first cometh to the mill, first
grint."-Chaucer.

Arbor naturam dat fructibus atque figuram.
Arbor ut ex fructu, sic nequam noscitur actu.
Ars compensabit quod vis tibi magna negabit.
Artem natura superat sine vi, sine curâ.
Aspera vox, Ite, sed vox est blanda, Venite.
An allusion to Matt. xxv. 34, 41.

Cari rixantur, rixantes conciliantur.
Carius est carum, si prægustatur amarum.
Casus dementis correctio fit sapientis.

Catus sæpe satur cum capto mure jocatur.
Cautus homo cavit, si quem natura notavit.
Conjugium sine prole, dies veluti sine sole.

Contra vim mortis non herbula crescit in hortis.

Cui puer assuescit, major dimittere nescit.

The same appears also in a pentameter, and under an
Horatian image : Quod nova testa capit, inveterata sapit.

Cum jocus est verus, jocus est malus atque severus.
So the Spanish: Malas son las burlas verdaderas.
Curvum se præbet quod in uncum crescere debet.
Curia Romana non quærit ovem sine lanâ.
Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere vultum.

"He that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness." (Rom. xii. 8.)
Cf. Ecclus. xxxv. 9; SENECA, De Benef., i. 1.

Deficit ambobus qui vult servire duobus.
Dormit secure, cui non est functio curæ.
Far from court, far from care.

Ebibe vas totum, si vis cognoscere potum.
Est facies testis, quales intrinsecus estis.
Est nulli certum cui pugna velit dare sertum.
Ex linguâ stultâ veniunt incommoda multa.

Ex minimo crescit, sed non cito fama quiescit.
Fœmina ridendo flendo fallitque canendo.
Frangitur ira gravis, cum fit responsio suavis.
Fures in lite pandunt abscondita vitæ.

So in Spanish: Riñen las comadres, y dicense las ver
dades.

Furtivus potus plenus dulcedine totus.

Hoc retine verbum, frangit Deus omne superbum.
Illa mihi patria est, ubi pascor, non ubi nascor.
Impedit omne forum defectus denariorum.

In vestimentis non stat sapientia mentis.

In vili veste nemo tractatur honeste.

The Russians have a worthier proverb: A man's reception is according to his coat; his dismissal according to his

sense.

Linguam frænare plus est quam castra domare.
Lingua susurronis est pejor felle draconis.
Musca, canes, mimi veniunt ad fercula primi.
Mus salit in stratum, cum scit non adfore catum.
Ne credas undam, placidam non esse profundam.
Nil cito mutabis, donec meliora parabis.

Nobilitas morum plus ornat quam genitorum.
Non colit arva bene, qui semen mandat arenæ.
Non est in mundo dives qui dicit, Abundo.
Non habet anguillam, per caudam qui tenet illam.
Non stat securus, qui protinus est ruiturus.
Non vult scire satur quid jejunus patiatur.
Omnibus est nomen, sed idem non omnibus omen.

In a world of absolute truth, every name would be the
exact utterance of the thing or person that bore it; but in
our world not every Irenæus is peaceable, nor every Blanche
a blonde. Vigilantius ought rather, according to Jerome,
to have been named Dormitantius; and Antiochus Epi-
phanes, (the Illustrious,) was for the Jews Antiochus
Epimanes, (the Insane.)

Parvis imbutus tentabis grandia tutus.

Pelle sub agninâ latitat mens sæpe lupina.
Per multum, Cras, Cras, omnis consumitur ætas.
Prodigus est natus de parco patre creatus.
Quando tumet venter, produntur facta latenter.
Qui bene vult fari, debet bene præmeditari.