persons a dunce may be held in some estimation. The corydus is a species of larks, of a very inferior quality, which were found in great abundance near Athens: but as the lark has some credit among us for its note, the sparrow is here substituted as better according with the intention of the adage. "Luscus convitia jacit in cæcum," or "borgne est roy entre les aveugles," he that hath one eye is a king among the blind; and " dixo el cuervo a la corneja, quita os alla negra," the crow bids the rook put off his black coat, and the rook makes the same proposal to the crow.

Ficum cupit.

He wants figs. This was used to be said of any one paying particular attention to persons much beneath him; meaning, he is courting me for his own purpose, as may be said of our gentry going into the shops of little traders on the eve of a general election, spending their money with them liberally and treating them with unusual civility: he wants my

vote.

The

The Athenians were used on the approach of the season when the figs were coming to perfection, to visit the cots of the neighbouring peasants, and treat them with great familiarity and kindness, that they might procure from them some of the finest of the fruit; which the rustics at length perceiving, when any one they did not know, addressed them in that manner, they would say, what you want, I suppose, some of our figs; which thence became proverbial.

Odium Vatinianum.

Vatinian hatred, by which the Romans meant to express, an inextinguishable hatred, such as they bore to Vatinus, for his flagitious vices and cruelty, which had been exposed to them by Cicero.

Ficus Ficus, Ligonem Ligonem vocat. He calls a fig, a fig; a spade, a spade. That is, he is a man of plain and rustic manners,

and calls every thing by its name.

"He is Tom tell-truth." He tells his story as it had been related to him, and is no respecter of persons. If a man is just and upright, he gives him due honour; if crafty and deceitful, whatever may be his quality, he calls him a knave. "But vice has persuaded custom," Sir William Cornwallis observes, "that to call naught, naught, is uncivil and dangerous." At any rate, let those who have any hidden, or not generally known vices, take care how they descant upon the follies or vices of others, lest their own faults should be drawn from their covert, and exposed to the world. "Desinant maledicere, malefacta ni noscant sua.'

Bona magis carendo quam fruendo sentimus. We perceive more the value of an object when it has escaped from us, than we did when possessing it, and "Bona à tergo formosissima," good things rarely appear to us in their full beauty, until we are about to lose them. The poor man, in the fable, did not know to what degree he valued life, until death,

whom

whom he had called for, came to take it from

him.

"Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes,

And when in act they cease, in prospect rise."

"Vâche ne sçait que vaut se queue,

Jusques à ce qu'elle l'ait perdue."

The cow did not know the value of her tail, until she had lost it.

"What we have we prize not to the worth,

Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why then we rack the value; then we find
The virtue, that possession would not give us
Whiles it was ours."

Ne ad Aures quidem scalpendas Ocium est.

He is so full of business, that he has not time to scratch his ears, by which hyperbolical expression, the ancients designated persons so overwhelmed by a multiplicity of employments, as not to leave them leisure for the most common and necessary concerns.

Quot Servi tot Hostes.

Who has many servants, has as many enemies, which is the way I should choose to read the adage. If your servants are slaves, purchased, or taken in war, as they will be perpetually seeking means to free themselves from bondage, the more there are of them the greater the danger, and these are probably the servants alluded to. In this sense it is not less true when applied to servants who are hired, and may be supposed to serve voluntarily. If you keep more than you have employment for, they will corrupt each other, and become vicious through idleness. "Quien ha criados, ha enemigos no escusados," he who has servants, has unavoidable enemies. As they cannot be dispensed with, they are therefore necessary evils.

The adage more particularly admonishes, that you do not make confidents of them, but as far as you are able, keep from them the knowledge of all circumstances, which divulged might injure you; but this, if there are many of them, will not be easily effected. On this subject Juvenal says,

"O Co