weighty  in  meaning,  and  which  is  frequently  repeated
without  reference  to  its  origin.  We  say  an  expression
has  "  passed  into  a  proverb,"  when  it  is  often  quoted
as  common  property.  Such  proverbs  as  "Honesty  is
the  best  policy,"  "  Live  while  you  live,"  "  Give  an
inch,  and  he  will  take  an  ell,"  "  There  is  but  a  step
from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,"  are  well  known.
Some  proverbs  are  recognized  as  vulgar,  others  are  el-
evated and  noble.  One  book  in  the  Bible  is  entitled
a  "  Book  of  Proverbs,"  and  contains  some  which  are
in  common  use,  though  the  verbal  beauty  and  force
of  a  proverb  are  generally  destroyed  by  translation  from
one  language  to  another.  Each  language  has  its  own ;
there  are  but  few  common  to  two  or  more  languages.
Languages,  like  other  clothes,  vary  in  fashion.  Ches-
terfield, who  was  more  finical  than  wise,  and  who  had
not  merit  enough  to  achieve  high  success  as  an  author
without  the  peculiar  advantages  of  his  hereditary  po-
sition, discountenanced  the  use  of  proverbs,  simply  be-
cause the  uneducated  use  them.  The  fact  that  these
repositories  of  thought  and  wit  are  in  the  possession
of  both  the  unlearned  and  the  learned,  renders  them
doubly  valuable  to  one  who  would  address  a  general
audience  in  speech  or  writing.  Such  writers  as  Cob-
bett  and  Benjamin  Franklin  never  shrink  from  a  pop-
ular idiom  or  proverb.
