Transcriber's note.
A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book.
PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS.
PROVERBS OF ALL NATIONS,
COMPARED,
EXPLAINED, AND ILLUSTRATED.
BY
WALTER K. KELLY.
"Even the best proverb, though often the expression of the widest experiencein the choicest language, can be thoroughly misapplied. It cannot embrace thewhole of the subject, and apply in all cases like a mathematical formula. Itswisdom lies in the ear of the hearer."—Friends in Council.
LONDON:
W. KENT & CO. (LATE D. BOGUE), 86, FLEET STREET,
AND PATERNOSTER ROW.
1859.
WINCHESTER:
PRINTED BY HUGH BARCLAY,
HIGH STREET.
PREFACE.
English literature, in most departments the richest inEurope, is yet the only one in which there has hithertoexisted no comprehensive collection of proverbs adaptedto general use. To supply this deficiency is the objectof the present attempt.
Dean Trench, in the preface to his "Proverbs andtheir Lessons," adverts to "the immense number andvariety of books bearing on the subject;" but adds,that among them all he knows not one which appears tohim quite suitable for all readers. "Either," he says,"they include matter which cannot fitly be placedbefore all—or they address themselves to the scholaralone; or, if not so, are at any rate inaccessible to themere English reader—or they contain bare lists ofproverbs, with no endeavour to compare, illustrate, orexplain them—or, if they do seek to explain, they yetdo it without attempting to sound the depths or measurethe real significance of that which they attempt tounfold."
My own experience in this department of literature isentirely in accordance with these views. I have, therefore,during the preparation of the following pages, keptconstantly before my mind the Dean of Westminster'sprecise statement of things to be done, and things to beavoided.
British proverbs for the most part form the basis ofthis collection. They are arranged according to theirimport and affinity, and under each of them are groupedtranslations of their principal equivalents in other languages,the originals being generally appended in footnotes.By this means are formed natural families ofproverbs, the several members of which acquire increased[vi]significance from the light they reflect on each other.At the same time, a source of lively interest is openedfor the reader, who is thus enabled to observe themanifold diversities of form which the same thoughtassumes, as expressed in different times and by manydistinct races of men; to trace the unity in varietywhich pervades the oldest and most universal monumentsof opinion and sentiment among mankind; andto verify for himself the truth of Lord Bacon's well-knownremark, that "the genius, wit, and spirit of anation are discovered in its proverbs."
Touching as they do upon so wide a range of humanconcerns, proverbs are necessarily associated with writtenliterature. Sometimes they are created by it; muchoftener they are woven into its texture. Personalanecdotes turn upon them in many instances; and notunfrequently they have figured in national history, orha