déshabillé, pet-en-l'air, ragoût, fricassée, tour, route, levée, fineffe, foible, caprice, douceur, embonpoint, &c. are likewife obliged to them for many other words, which have undergone fome little alteration fince their introduction: fuch as, masquerade, gallantry, coquetry, effrontery, chicanery, buffoonery, flattery, treachery, trumpery, treason, jaundice, falmagundi, hodge-podge t, &c. But, in the name of wonder, why muft we be brought in debtors to the French,. either directly or indirealy, for fuch words as, honor, virtue, modefty, chastity, money, majefty, prefage, obfequies, people, palace, politeness, peace, treasure, theatre, phantom, paragraph, and a thousand more, which we have unquestion ably derived from Greece and Rome! It should therefore be the business of every etymologist, not to fill his volume with a multitude of useless terms from a fifter language; but, in the words of the poet, antiquam exquirere matrem. To return to the Dictionary of Proverbs.-In ancient times, before printing was invented, when bookmakers and books were not fo common as they are in these days, the obfervations of wife men were fummed up in fhort comprehensive fentences. If these fentences contained serious and felf-evident truths, they were generally called maxims.—But if the fentiments were of a popular kind, if the sayings were trite and common, or expreffed with turns of wit, or if they were founded on the obfervations of the vulgar, they were usually styled proverbs, or adages. Proverbs were in ufe in the earlieft ages of antiquity. King David, almost three thousand years ago, referred to the proverbs of the ancients, and we have a collection in the Bible by king Solomon, by one Agur, fon of Jakeh, and king Lemuel, which are held in the highest veneration. The eaftern nations, the Tartars, Turks, Arabians, and Perfians, have ever had their fhort, pithy, proverbial fayings. Anglice, a f-t in the air. +Mafcarade, galanterie, coqueterie, effronterie, chicanerie, boufonnerie, flatterie, tricherie, tromperie, trahifon, jauniffe, falmigondis, hochepot. Bailey tells us, that the falmagundi is an Italian dish; but, with all due deference to that illuftrious philologift, his reafon for that fuppofition is equivocal. The word, he fays, had its origin from Catherine de Medici, queen of France. Her head cook's name, who ufed to wait upon her at table, was Gondi: her majefty, loving her victuals pretty highly feafoned, would often afk him for falt in this familiar ftyle: fal mi Gondi. Hence this relishing difh obtained its name. If, as the learned Dr. Johnson fuppofes, it is derived from felon mon goût, or jale à mon goût, it is plainly of French, and not of Italian derivation. 1 Sam. xxiv. 13. The proverbs of Barthrouherri is a facred book of the modern Indians. Almoft all the Greek philofophers and poets were. gnomologifts; and the feven wife men acquired their reputa-, tion by nothing more than two or three fhrewd fayings, apophthegms, or proverbs. There were many eminent collectors of adages among the ancients; as, Ariftotle, Chryfippus, Cleanthes, Clearchus, Didymus, Theophraftus, Diogenianus, and others, whofe names are recorded by Hoffman. All the principal nations of Europe, the Italians, Spaniards, French, Germans, Scots, and English, have had their collections of proverbs. Our worthy countryman, Mr. Ray, with the affiftance of many learned friends, publifhed a celebrated book of this fort. After him Dr. Thomas Fuller publifhed a more opious collection, containing near 7000 adages, under the title of Gnomologia. But above all, the illuftrious Erasmus has left us a wonderful compilation of this kind, which has been largely augmented fince his death, by the collections of many eminent writers. Whoever cafts his eye over that great work may form a competent idea of the proverbs of the Hebrews, Arabians, Greeks, and Romans; and will be convinced, whatever fops in literature may pretend, that proverbs are no infignificant trifles, the effufions of ignorance or pedantry; but, as lord Bacon calls them, mucrones verborum, that is, the edge-tools of fpeech; the maxims of genuine wifdom, the productions of philofophers, prophets, legiflators, and princes. Let no one therefore defpife, ridicule, or by any means dif courage the diligence and kindness of thofe, who take pains to pick up, and bring home to us, the little fragments of wifdom and instruction, which lie fcattered up and down in a thoufand places, through the wide regions of literature. The work, which has given occafion to these remarks, contains about 500 proverbs, extracted from the dictionaries of Boyer and Chambaud.. It is a light, fugitive performance; and cannot poffibly contain as much learning, as a volume in folio. But let us examine two or three of the proverbs, and perhaps we may find fome documents worthy of our notice ; fome expreffions characteristic of the genius, difpofition, manners, and cuftoms of two of the the moft refpectable nations in Europe. Prov. 1. An Englishman, when he would give us the idea of a jolly fellow, who has a bluff and boisterous afpect, uses this proverb: He looks as big as bull-beef. Here, perhaps, by a common figure in rhetoric, the caufe is put for the effect. For all the world knows, what effect the roast beef of Old England has upon our foldiers. The proverb, however, if taken in a literal fenfe, is equally proper and fignificant. When a British grenadier confronts à puny Frenchman in the field of battle, his broad, rofy face refembles a furloin of bull-beef, in colour, circumference, and folidity. The Frenchman, who dines on foupe maigre, and a fricaffée of frogs, has no notion of this formidable image; and therefore in French the proverb is expressed in thefe tame and infipid words: Il a le regard extrêmement fer. Even Homer's devov depnouevoi, truculenter intuentes, is lefs emphatical than our English proverb *. Prov. 2. Welcome as flowers in May. Auffi bien venu, que les fleurs au mois de Mai. This proverb denotes the coldness of the climate, where it was originally introduced. In fome countries flowers are plentiful enough in April. It might poffibly take its rife in the country, where, according to a celebrated poet, Half-ftarv'd fpiders prey on half-ftarv'd flies +.' We remember to have feen a letter from Glasgow, in which the author informs his correfpondent, that they had a very forward feafon; for they had gathered pot-herbs, dandelion and nettles, on midfummer-day.' Prov. 3. To teach one's grandam to grope ducks. A far more fimple, rural, and inoffenfive image, than what the French proverb conveys: Apprendre à fon père à faire des enfans.' This idea not improperly characterizes a land of levity, gallantry, and cuckoldom. 6 Prov. 4. De jeune putain, vieille dévote. A young whore, an old faint. This proverb is frequently verified in a convent, where carnal defires are not fubdued, but only converted into Spiritual concupifcence. Prov. 5. Aimer quelqu'un comme le diable aime l'eau bénite. To love one, as the devil loves holy water.' This proverb, if it had been introduced by a proteftant, would have had a meaning directly contrary to what it bears at prefent. The devil can have no antipathy to holy bones, holy rags, and holy awater. This fort of trumpery is extremely favourable to his intereft; or in the words of the adage, brings grift to his * Amidst the dreadful vale, the chiefs advance, All pale with rage, and fhake the threatn'ning lance. Pope's II. iii. 425. This expreffion, All pale with rage, as Mr. Melmoth very justly remarks, feems to fuggeft to one's imagination the ridiculous paffion of a couple of female scolds; rather than the terrifying image of two indignant heroes, animated with calm and deliberate va'lour. + Churchill's Proph, of Famine mill.” mill. The faying above cited is therefore the fentiment of a Prov. 6. Pifs not against the wind. Il ne fert de rien de nager contre le torrent. How emphatically does the English proverb display the plain, unaffected fimplicity of our ancestors! The image is ruftic, but the advice is excellent. Proy. 7. Between two flools, the breech on the ground. Entre deux felles, le cul à terre.' The curious antiquarian will obfèrve, that this proverb reprefents our forefathers in their primitive fimplicity, fitting upon ftools; and, what is more remarkable, only two itools for three people. The proverb denotes their fimplicity, their economy, or their innocent feftivity and merriment. Such a proverb would never have been fuggested by their luxurious and effeminate defcendents, who indulge themfelves upon fettees and fofas.Unacquainted with the faftidioufness of their pofterity, they likewife ufed the following homely proverb: Prov. 7. A turd is as good for a few as a pancake. They were plain and artlefs, and like Adam and Eve in a state of innocence, not ashamed of exhibiting the most unfavourable fide of humanity; and therefore they made no fcruple of calling every thing by its proper name. The French, we must acknowledge, have expreffed the fame obfervation with much greater nicety. La truie aime mieux le bran que les rofes. If we may be allowed with Cotgrave, to tranflate le bran, by bran or draff, the fentiment is delicate and refined, far beyond the ruftic vulgarity of the English expreffion. But, we may ftill improve the idea, and give it all the elegance, all the je ne-feais quoi, which modern French authors fo greatly affect*, if we only borrow an expreflion from the celebrated importer of the French chicken gloves, and render it in this manner: The matron of the fty regales herfelf more deliciously on the husk of malt †, than on the imperial milk of rofest.' Thus we have given a fpecimen of the wisdom, which may be extracted from the little manual before us. It is, beyond "The affected, the refined, the neological, or new and fafhionable style, are at prefent too much in vogue at Paris. Fine fentiments, which never existed, false and unnatural thoughts, obfcure and far-fought expreffions, are all the confequences of this error; and two thirds of the new French books, which now appear, are made up of thefe ingredients.' Cheft. let. 205. Grains, the hulks of malt, exhaufted in brewing.' Johnson's + Warren's Advertisements. £ 3 all all difpute, a mere bagatelle. But little things may be of fome importance! a butterfly and a mite have their ufe in the great fyftem of the univerfe, as well as the elephant and the whale. X. Remarks on the Obfervations made in the late Voyage towards the North Pole, for determining the Acceleration of the Pendulum, in Latitude 79° 50. By Samuel Horfley, LL. D. Sec. R. S. In a Letter to the Hon. Conftantine John Phipps. 410. White. THE HE learned doctor's intention, in this pamphlet, is to correct two or three errors and inaccuracies that had been introduced into fome of the numerous mathematical calcu lations which appear in the excellent book referred to in the title. Thefe errors appeared of fuch confequence, both with refpect to their own general importance, and the influence they have had on the conclufions drawn from them, that an open detection feemed not unneceffary; and we think the public are much obliged to the doctor for his early attention to the fubject: thefe remarks being made too with that delicacy and candour which commonly attend real merit, we have no doubt of their being taken in good part by the honourable and learned author of the Voyage, whose chief aim feems to have been the discovery of truth. On this head the doctor obferves, near the beginning, I fhall give you my remarks without apology, which it would be the highest injuftice to you not to fuppofe unneceffary, after the pains you have bestowed upon the obfervation, and the minuteness and fidelity with which you have detailed all the circumftances of it, as well as the fteps of the fubfequen: calculations.' And again, in concluding, he fays, I flatter myfelf that you will take thefe ftri&tures in good part, as the only motive which induces me to trouble you with them, is one which I am perfuaded is a ruling principle with yourfelf, a regard to truth." This honourable conduct in gentlemen cannot be too much admired and commended; it at once manifefts the goodnes both of the head and heart of the inquifitors, from whence may be expected real difcoveries, with juft arguments and folid reasoning, inftead of the fophiftical disguises used by writers of a different kind. It is to be noted, however, that the failure in these aftro.nomical calculations is not to be attributed to the honourable gentleman who performed the voyage, but to Mr. Ifrael Lyons, who was fent with him, by the board of longitude, to make fuch |