nowing what is habitual to them." Lord
Bacon condensed a wide circuit of philosophical thought, when he
observed that "the genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered by
their proverbs."

Proverbs peculiarly national, while they convey to us the modes of
thinking, will consequently indicate the modes of acting among a people.
The Romans had a proverbial expression for their last stake in play,
_Rem ad triarios venisse_, "the reserve are engaged!" a proverbial
expression, from which the military habits of the people might be
inferred; the _triarii_ being their reserve. A proverb has preserved a
curious custom of ancient coxcombry, which originally came from the
Greeks. To men of effeminate manners in their dress, they applied the
proverb of _Unico digitulo scalpit caput_. Scratching the head with a
single finger was, it seems, done by the critically nice youths in Rome,
that they might not discompose the economy of their hair. The Arab,
whose unsettled existence makes him miserable and interested, says,
"Vinegar given is better than honey bought." Everything of high esteem
with him who is so often parched in the desert is described as
_milk_--"How large his flow of milk!" is a proverbial expression with
the Arab to distinguish the most copious eloquence. To express a state
of perfect repose, the Arabian proverb is, "I throw the rein over my
back;" an allusion to the loosening of the cords of the camels, which
are thrown over their backs when they are sent to pasture. We discover
the rustic manners of our ancient Britons in the Cambrian proverbs; many
relate to the _hedge_. "The cleanly Briton is seen in the _hedge_: the
horse looks not on the _hedge_ but the corn: the bad husband's _hedge_
is full of gaps." The state of an agricultural people appears in such
proverbs as "You must not count your yearlings till May-day:" and their
proverbial sentence for old age is, "An old man's end is to keep sheep?"
Turn from the vagrant Arab and the agricultural Briton to a nation
existing in a high state of artificial civilization: the Chinese
proverbs frequently allude to magnificent buildings. Affecting a more
solemn exterior than all other nations, a favourite proverb with them
is, "A grave and majestic outside is, as it were, the _palace_ of the
soul." Their notion of a government is quite architectural. They say, "A
sovereign may be compared to a _hall_; his officers to the steps that
lead to it; the people to the ground o