where did light as a feather stiff as a board come from
Light as a feather, stiff as a board The oldest known account of levitation play comes from the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), a British naval administrator. Pepys’s account of levitation play comes from a conversation with a friend of his, Mr. Brisband, who claimed to have seen four little girls playing light as a feather, stiff as a board in Bourdeaux, France. Pepys’s account of Mr. Brisband’s experience reads:
The Oak and the Reed There are early Greek versions of this fable and a 5th-century Latin version by Avianus. They deal with the contrasting behaviour of the oak, which trusts in its strength to withstand the storm and is blown over, and the reed that 'bends with the wind' and so survives.[1] Most early sources see it as a parable about pride and humility, providing advice on how to survive in turbulent times. This in turn gave rise to various proverbs such as 'Better bend than break'[2] and 'A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall', the earliest occurrence of which is in Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (II.1387-9). It so happens that there is an overlap here with the old Chinese proverb 'A tree that is unbending is easily broken'. The saying originally occurred in the religious classic, the Tao Te Ching, with the commentary that 'The hard and strong will fall, the soft and weak will overcome'.[3]