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Article COLLECTANEA. ← Page 4 of 4
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Collectanea.
" IF men would only be determined to overcome a difficulty , they would find it but half performed before they thought they had commenced ; it is the want of exertion , and not ability , that makes so many men unsuccessful . " ADVICE . — " Most people seem to imagine that advice , like physic , to do good must be disagreeable . " " THE worst vices springing from the worst princiles—the excesses
p of the libertine , and the outrages of the plunderer—usually take their rise from earl y and unsubdued idleness . "— Parr ' s Discourses on Education . " LORD BACON died so poor that he scarce left money to bury him ; ' which , ' says Howell , 'though be had a great wit , did argue no great wisdom , it being one of-the essential properties of a wise man to provide for the main chance : '"
"ANACHAUSIS , though a Scythian , uttered sentiments as beautiful as Plato himself . Among his fine sayings is the one , ' The vine bears three grapes : the first is that of p leasure , the second is that of drunkenness , the third is that of sorrow . ' A certain Greek poet , in a very ingenious distribution , gave the first bowl , or crater , to the Graces , Hours , and Bacchus ; the second to the other heathen deities ; the third to Mischief . "
" THE Sardonic laugh is that beneath ivhich severe uneasiness is concealed . 'Sardinia , ' says Solinus , ' produces a herb ivhich has this singular property that , whilst it destroys whoever eats it , it so contracts the features , and particularly the mouth into a grin , as to make the sufferer appear to die laughing . " " A GERMAN prince , in a dream , seeing three rats , one fat , the other lean , and the third blind , sent for a celebrated Bohemian gipsey , and
demanded an explanation . 'The fat rat , ' said the sorceress , 'is your prime minister ; the lean rat your people ; and the blind rat yourself . ' " BY HOOKE OR BY CROOKE . — " The proverb of getting anything by hooke or by crooke , is said to have arisen in the time of Charles I ., when there were two learned judges named Hooke and Crooke , and a difficult cause was to be gotten either by Hooke or by Crooke . Spencer , however , mentions these words twice in his ' Faery Queene , '—
' The which her sire had scrapt by Hooke and Crooke . ' And , in another place , — ' In hopes her to attain by Hooke or by Crooke . " Here is a proof that this proverb is much older than Charles ' s time , and that the phrase was not then used as a proverb , but applied as a pun . "— Warton . PHILOSOPHY OF HEAT . — " ' Well , my little fellow , ' said a certain
principal to a sucking philosopher , whose mamma had been teasing the learned knight to test the astonishing abilities of her boy , ' what are the properties of heat ?'— ' The chief property of heat is , that it expands bodies , while cold contracts them . '— ' Very good , indeed ; can you give a familiar example ?'— 'Yes , sir ; in summer , when it is hot , the day is long ; while , in winter , when it is cold , it becomes very short . " The learned knight stopped his examination , and was lost in amazement that so familiar an instance should have so long escaped his own observation . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
" IF men would only be determined to overcome a difficulty , they would find it but half performed before they thought they had commenced ; it is the want of exertion , and not ability , that makes so many men unsuccessful . " ADVICE . — " Most people seem to imagine that advice , like physic , to do good must be disagreeable . " " THE worst vices springing from the worst princiles—the excesses
p of the libertine , and the outrages of the plunderer—usually take their rise from earl y and unsubdued idleness . "— Parr ' s Discourses on Education . " LORD BACON died so poor that he scarce left money to bury him ; ' which , ' says Howell , 'though be had a great wit , did argue no great wisdom , it being one of-the essential properties of a wise man to provide for the main chance : '"
"ANACHAUSIS , though a Scythian , uttered sentiments as beautiful as Plato himself . Among his fine sayings is the one , ' The vine bears three grapes : the first is that of p leasure , the second is that of drunkenness , the third is that of sorrow . ' A certain Greek poet , in a very ingenious distribution , gave the first bowl , or crater , to the Graces , Hours , and Bacchus ; the second to the other heathen deities ; the third to Mischief . "
" THE Sardonic laugh is that beneath ivhich severe uneasiness is concealed . 'Sardinia , ' says Solinus , ' produces a herb ivhich has this singular property that , whilst it destroys whoever eats it , it so contracts the features , and particularly the mouth into a grin , as to make the sufferer appear to die laughing . " " A GERMAN prince , in a dream , seeing three rats , one fat , the other lean , and the third blind , sent for a celebrated Bohemian gipsey , and
demanded an explanation . 'The fat rat , ' said the sorceress , 'is your prime minister ; the lean rat your people ; and the blind rat yourself . ' " BY HOOKE OR BY CROOKE . — " The proverb of getting anything by hooke or by crooke , is said to have arisen in the time of Charles I ., when there were two learned judges named Hooke and Crooke , and a difficult cause was to be gotten either by Hooke or by Crooke . Spencer , however , mentions these words twice in his ' Faery Queene , '—
' The which her sire had scrapt by Hooke and Crooke . ' And , in another place , — ' In hopes her to attain by Hooke or by Crooke . " Here is a proof that this proverb is much older than Charles ' s time , and that the phrase was not then used as a proverb , but applied as a pun . "— Warton . PHILOSOPHY OF HEAT . — " ' Well , my little fellow , ' said a certain
principal to a sucking philosopher , whose mamma had been teasing the learned knight to test the astonishing abilities of her boy , ' what are the properties of heat ?'— ' The chief property of heat is , that it expands bodies , while cold contracts them . '— ' Very good , indeed ; can you give a familiar example ?'— 'Yes , sir ; in summer , when it is hot , the day is long ; while , in winter , when it is cold , it becomes very short . " The learned knight stopped his examination , and was lost in amazement that so familiar an instance should have so long escaped his own observation . "