Caseus est nequam Quia degerit omnia sequam. which dog latin has been rendered O cheese thou art an evil elf, Eat leeks in March All the rest of the year The doctors may play -Sussex. By way of general rule these lines may be accepted. Non est vivere sed valere vita. Here the terseness of the Latin almost defies the translation. It implies that, without the above, Life is not living but bare existence. As another poet has spoken, Circles are praised, not that abound In largeness, but the exactly round, So Life we praise that doth excel Not in much time, but acting well.- Waller. One other rule, and a golden one, in medicine, as in all else is, Let well alone. When trouble sleepeth wake it not. Chi sta bene, non si muove, i.e. not at all, for Non patitur ludus fama, fides, oculus. To faith, to fame, and to the eye The following of any other plan, in its folly and consequences is well shown in the old epitaph. I was well, would be better, took physic,-and died! 1 SPEECH. Perhaps there are no proverbs more useful than these to have at the finger ends—I was going to say, at the tip of the tongue, but that is exactly what they would discountenance. Least said is soonest mended. More have repented speech than silence. He who says what he likes, will hear what he does not like. Speech is silvern, silence is golden. "He that hath knowledge spareth his words." Where God says little, they who are or in the French Molte parole pochi fatti. Much din and little done. Beaucoup de bruit which Pope has thus expanded Words are like leaves, and where they most abound Good words without deeds Are rushes and reeds. Ai buoni intenditori poche parole bastano.—Ital. Where hearts are true Few words will do. Talking comes by nature, Silence by understanding. The still sow sucks the most wash. Empty vessels ring the loudest. Pensa molto, parla poco, scrive meno. say the sagacious Italians: who, in this last, have hit on a new danger that has master is abroad.' Some incontinence of the pen. arisen now that the schoolpeople are afflicted with an Something excites them, at once they dash off a letter, post it themselves, for fearing of being dissuaded, and presently find themselves committed to a very serious quarrel; or they rush into print, and get shown up most unmercifully; until at last they are fain to wish, with that unhappy forger, that learning to write had not been part of their education! Litera scripta manet. If the word spoken cannot be recalled, still less can the written letter. Great are the perils that environ The man who meddles with cold iron, says Hudibras; and other perils 'environ' the ink bottle. Job is made to say, in our Authorized Version "And that my adversary had written a book!" Happy indeed those Authors in their old age, who recall no line that they fain would blot! But, of all whimsical ways of getting into trouble through incautious writing, perhaps none could exceed the case of that clergyman in the last century, who was charged during a hot contested election with canvassing from the pulpit. It appeared that the good man, in his innocence, had written his sermon notes on a good sized piece of cardboard, which he found on his study table, of which he used the blank portion. The other side however, which was the one, while he held it up, that was presented to the congregation, contained these words. 'Vote for so and so' in most conspicuous letters, to his unmeasured consternation when the matter was explained to him. 'No one was ever written down,' the Times remarks, except by himself.' And some one has given this rhyming advice, which is also sound reason. If you from slips Of these five things beware, Of whom you speak, To whom you speak, And what, and when, and where. Since word is thrall, and thought is free, Speak well of your friend, of your enemy say nothing. As by the ears the ass is known, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Special proverbs supply us with some excellent ad monitions. Better the feet slip than the tongue. Give neither advice nor salt until you are asked for it. Advise none to marry, nor to go to war. Dont talk of my debts unless you mean to pay them. Dont talk of a halter in his house who was hanged. Some people have the undesirable faculty of always saying the wrong thing to the wrong people: others delight in what Sheridan called, 'a nice derangement of epitaphs;' nor can that comparison of his Mrs. Malaprop ever come to be forgotten, 'As pensive as an allegory on the banks of the Nile!' In bocca serrata non entra mai le mosche.-Ital. which may be paraphrased He that has a head of wax should not sit in the sun : More literally. Keep your mouth closed, and then the flies cannot enter. They never taste who always drink, They always talk who never think.-Prior. Least said is soonest mended. Singing is next door to talking; of this says Coleridge, Swans sing before their death, 'twere no bad thing, But here we are on dangerous ground, and will simply record further, this somewhat cruel epitaph, which may, or may not, have referred to her singing, Here lies Miss Arabella Young, She's learned, at last, to hold her tongue. It must not be supposed, however, by any means, that Speech has nothing to say for itself. Quite the contrary, Trust not still water, nor a silent man: while again, as old Homer has it, it is no small thing to be an articulate speaking mortal.' How wonderful thus to be able to communicate our thoughts to others; what a marvellous matter is the power of persuasion; how great a gift is eloquence; what a delight to an audience the well ordered and flexible voice of the practised speaker! I remember such an one, who could sway the largest assembly, even as the wind the ears of corn that bend before it; playing on the human heart as on an instrument, carrying from grave to gay, from thrilling pathos to laughter inextinguishable, rousing and allaying the feelings, almost at his pleasure! And there are grades |