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Adding insult to injury.

A fly bit the bare pate of a bald man; who, endeavouring to crush it, gave himself a heavy blow. Then said the fly, jeeringly: "You wanted to revenge the sting of a tiny insect with death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?"

Quid facies tibi,

Injuriæ qui addideris contumeliam ?

Phædrus, The Bald Man and the Fly. Book v. Fable 3.

Conspicuous by his absence.

Sed præfulgebant Cassius atque Brutus, eo ipso quod effigies eorum non videbantur. - Tacitus, Annals, iii. § 76.

Lord John Russell, alluding to an expression used by him in his address to the electors of the city of London, said, It is not an original expression of mine, but is taken from one of the greatest historians of antiquity."

I am the things that have been, and that are,

and that will be; no one has uncovered my skirts; the fruit which I brought forth became the sun.

Inscription in the Temple of Neith at Sais. -
Plutarch, Is. et Osir. p. 354, ed. Wyttenbach.

Cæsar's wife should be above suspicion.

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Cæsar was asked why he had divorced his wife. 'Because," said he, "I would have the chastity of my wife clear even of suspicion."Plutarch, Life of Cæsar. Ch. 10.

Strike, but hear.

Eurybiades lifting up his staff as if he was going to strike, Themistocles said, "Strike if you will, but hear." - Plutarch, Life of Themistocles.

Where the shoe pinches.

Plutarch relates the story of a Roman being divorced from his wife. "This person being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded,

was she not chaste? was she not fair? — holding out his shoe asked them, whether it was not new, and well made. Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches me.". Plutarch, Life of Æmilius Paulus.

To smell of the lamp.

Plutarch, Life of Demosthenes. Ch. 8.

To call a spade a spade.

Plutarch, Reg. et Imp. Apoph. Philip. xv.

Τὰ σύκα σύκα, τὴν σκάφην δὲ σκάφην ὀνομάζων.
Aristophanes, as quoted in Lucian, Quom.
Hist. sit conscrib. 41.

Brought up like a rude Macedon, and taught to
call a spade a spade. - Gosson, Ephemerides
of Phialo. 1579.

Begging the question.

This is a common logical fallacy, petitio principii; and the first explanation of the phrase is to be found in Aristotle's Topica, viii. 13, where the five ways of begging the question are set forth. The earliest English work in which the expression is found is "The Arte of Logike plainlie set forth in our English Tongue, &c. 1584."

See how these Christians love one another. Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant. Tertullian, Apologet. c. 39.

I believe it, because it is impossible.

Certum est, quia impossibile est.

De Carne Christi, c. 5.

- Tertullian,

Usually misquoted, Credo quia impossibile.

The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.

Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis ; semen

est sanguis Christianorum. - Tertullian, Apologet. c. 50.

In a note to this passage in Tertullian, ed. 1641, there is the following quotation from St. Jerome : Est sanguis martyrum seminarium

ecclesiarum."

When at Rome, do as the Romans do.

St. Augustine was in the habit of dining upon
Saturday as upon Sunday; but, being puzzled
with the different practices then prevailing
(for they had begun to fast at Rome on Satur-
day), consulted St. Ambrose on the subject.
Now at Milan they did not fast on Saturday,
and the answer of the Milan saint was this:-
"When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday;
when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday."
"Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato: quando
Romæ sum, jejuno Sabbato.” — St. Augustine,
Epistle xxxvi. to Casulanus.

When they are at Rome, they do there as they
see done. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy.
Part. iii. sec. 4, Mem. 2, Subs. 1.

Beware of a man of one book.

When St. Thomas Aquinas was asked in what manner a man might best become learned, he answered "by reading one book." The homo unius libri is indeed proverbially formidable to all conversational figurantes.—Southey, The Doctor, p. 164.

Months without an R.

It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in their name to eat an

oyster. Butler, Dyct's Dry Dinner. 1599.

Wooden walls of England.

The credite of the Realme, by defending the same with our Wodden Walles, as Themistocles called the Ship of Athens.-Preface to the English translation of Linschoten. London, 1598.

The Art preservative of all arts.

From the inscription upon the façade of the house at Harlem, formerly occupied by Laurent Koster or Coster, who is charged, among others, with the invention of printing. Mention is first made of this inscription about 1628. MEMORIE SACRUM

TYPOGRAPHIA

ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM

CONSERVATRIX.

HIC PRIMUM INVENTA

CIRCA ANNUM MCCCCXL.

Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old

friends to trust!

Old authors to read!

Alonso of Aragon was wont to say, in commendation of age, that age appeared to be best in these four things. - Melchiòr, Floresta Española de Apothegmas o sentencais, &c., ii. 1. 20. Bacon, Apothegms, 97.

Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest. - John Webster, Westward Ho. Act ii. Sc. 2.

What find you better or more honourable than age? Take the preheminence of it in everything in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree. — Shakerly Marmion, The Antiquary. I love everything that's old. Old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. Act i. Sc. 1.

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Young men think old men fools, and old men know young men to be so.

Quoted by Camden as a saying of one Dr. Metcalf. It is now in many people's mouths, and likely to pass into a proverb. — Ray's Proverbs, p. 145, ed. Bohn.

The Gentle Craft.

According to Brady (Clavis Calendaria), this
designation arose from the fact, that, in an old
romance, a prince of the name of Crispin is
made to exercise, in honour of his namesake,
St. Crispin, the trade of shoemaking.
There is a tradition that King Edward IV., in
one of his disguises, once drank with a party
of shoemakers, and pledged them. The story
is alluded to in the old play : —

Marry because you have drank with the King,
And the King hath so graciously pledg'd you,
You shall no more be called shoemakers;
But you and yours, to the world's end,
Shall be called the trade of the gentle craft.
George a-Greene. 1599.

As good as a play.

An exclamation of Charles II. when in Parliament attending the discussion of Lord Russ's Divorce Bill.

The king remained in the House of Peers while his speech was taken into consideration, -a common practice with him; for the debates amused his sated mind, and were sometimes, he used to say, as good as a comedy. - Macaulay, Review of the Life and Writings of Sir William Temple.

Nullos his mallem ludos spectasse.

Horace, Sat. ii. 8, 79.

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