e gave himself up to the study of music, he
replied to his censurers by the Greek proverb, "An artist lives
everywhere." The emperor answered in the spirit of Rousseau's system,
that every child should be taught some trade. When Caesar, after anxious
deliberation, decided on the passage of the Rubicon (which very event
has given rise to a proverb), rousing himself with a start of courage,
he committed himself to Fortune, with that proverbial expression on his
lips, used by gamesters in desperate play: having passed the Rubicon, he
exclaimed, "The die is cast!" The answer of Paulus AEmilius to the
relations of his wife, who had remonstrated with him on his
determination to separate himself from her against whom no fault could
be alleged, has become one of our most familiar proverbs. This hero
acknowledged the excellences of his lady; but, requesting them to look
on his shoe, which appeared to be well made, he observed, "None of you
know where the shoe pinches!" He either used a proverbial phrase, or by
its aptness it has become one of the most popular.

There are, indeed, proverbs connected with the characters of eminent
men. They were either their favourite ones, or have originated with
themselves. Such a collection would form a historical curiosity. To the
celebrated Bayard are the French indebted for a military proverb, which
some of them still repeat, "_Ce que le gantelet gagne le gorgerin le
mange_"--"What the gauntlet gets, the gorget consumes." That reflecting
soldier well calculated the profits of a military life, which consumes,
in the pomp and waste which are necessary for its maintenance, the
slender pay it receives, and even what its rapacity sometimes acquires.
The favourite proverb of Erasmus was _Festina lente_!--"Hasten
slowly!"[38] He wished it be inscribed wherever it could meet our eyes,
on public buildings, and on our rings and seals. One of our own
statesmen used a favourite sentence, which has enlarged our stock of
national proverbs. Sir Amias Pawlet, when he perceived too much hurry in
any business, was accustomed to say, "Stay awhile, to make an end the
sooner." Oliver Cromwell's coarse but descriptive proverb conveys the
contempt he felt for some of his mean and troublesome coadjutors: "Nits
will be lice!" The Italians have a proverb, which has been occasionally
applied to certain political personages:--

_Egli e quello che Dio vuole;
E sara quello che Dio vorra!_

He is what God pleases