Asiatic works, which have been more recently introduced to the enlarged
knowledge of the European student, who formerly found his most extended
researches limited by Hellenistic lore.

Perhaps it was owing to an accidental circumstance that the proverbs of
the European nations have been preserved in the permanent form of
volumes. Erasmus is usually considered as the first modern collector,
but he appears to have been preceded by Polydore Vergil, who bitterly
reproaches Erasmus with envy and plagiarism, for passing by his
collection without even a poor compliment for the inventor! Polydore was
a vain, superficial writer, who prided himself in leading the way on
more topics than the present. Erasmus, with his usual pleasantry,
provokingly excuses himself, by acknowledging that he had forgotten his
friend's book! Few sympathise with the quarrels of authors; and since
Erasmus has written a far better book than Polydore Vergil's, the
original "_Adagia_" is left only to be commemorated in literary history
as one of its curiosities.[39]

The "Adagia" of Erasmus contains a collection of about five thousand
proverbs, gradually gathered from a constant study of the ancients.
Erasmus, blest with the genius which could enliven a folio, delighted
himself and all Europe by the continued accessions he made to a volume
which even now may be the companion of literary men for a winter day's
fireside. The successful example of Erasmus commanded the imitation of
the learned in Europe, and drew their attention to their own national
proverbs. Some of the most learned men, and some not sufficiently so,
were now occupied in this new study.

In Spain, Fernandez Nunes, a Greek professor, and the Marquis of
Santellana, a grandee, published collections of their _Refranes_, or
Proverbs, a term derived A REFERENDO, because it is often repeated. The
"Refranes o Proverbios Castellanos," par Caesar Oudin, 1624, translated
into French, is a valuable compilation. In Cervantes and Quevedo, the
best practical illustrators, they are sown with no sparing hand. There is
an ample collection of Italian proverbs, by Florio, who was an
Englishman, of Italian origin, and who published "Il Giardino di
Ricreatione" at London, so early as in 1591, exceeding six thousand
proverbs; but they are unexplained, and are often obscure. Another
Italian in England, Torriano, in 1649, published an interesting
collection in the diminutive form of a twenty-fours. It was subsequ