repeat it
more in daily converse than poetry or proverbs, and the constant
reproduction of it until it is reduced to a mere phantom, causes its
influence to appear more transient than it is.

And hence, although humour is generally "fleeting as the flowers," some
of the jests, which pass with us as new, are more than two thousand
years old. Porson said that he could trace back all the "Joe Millers" to
a Greek origin. The domestic cat--the cause of many of our household
calamities--was in full activity in the days of Aristophanes. Then, as
now, mourners had recourse to the friendly onion; and if Pythagoreans
had never dreamed of a donkey becoming a man, they had often known a man
to become a donkey. If they were not able to skin a flint, they knew
well what was meant by "skinning a flayed dog," and "shearing an ass."
These and similar sayings, being of a simple character, may have been
due to the same thought occurring to different minds, and this may be
the case even where there is more point; thus, "an ass laden with gold
will get into the strongest fortress," has been attributed to Frederick
the Great and to Napoleon, and may have been due to both. The saying
"Treat a friend as though he would one day become an enemy," has been
attributed to Lord Chesterfield, to Publius Syrus, and even to Bias, one
of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Many may exclaim, "Perish those who
have said our good things before us!"

But where the saying is very remarkable, or depends on some peculiar
circumstances, we may conclude that there is one original, and that upon
this pivot a number of different names and characters have been made to
revolve. It has been ascribed to or appropriated by many. We have read
of two eminent comic writers in classical times dying of laughter at
seeing an ass eat figs. Here it is most probable that there was some
standing joke upon this subject, or that some instance of the kind
occurred, and so this strange death came to be attributed to several
individuals. The saying,

"On two days is a wife enjoyable,
That of her bridal and her burial,"

attributed to Palladas in the fifth century A.D., was really
due to Hipponax in the fifth century B.C.

There is a story that Lord Stair was so like Louis XIV. that, when he
went to the French Court, the King asked him whether his mother was ever
in France, and that he replied "No, your Majesty, but my father was."
This is in reality a Roman story, and the answer