liger
and Erasmus loved them, and had formed collections drawn from the stores
of antiquity.

Some difficulty has occurred in the definition. Proverbs must be
distinguished from proverbial phrases, and from sententious maxims; but
as proverbs have many faces, from their miscellaneous nature, the class
itself scarcely admits of any definition. When Johnson defined a proverb
to be "a short sentence frequently repeated by the people," this
definition would not include the most curious ones, which have not
always circulated among the populace, nor even belong to them; nor does
it designate the vital qualities of a proverb. The pithy quaintness of
old Howell has admirably described the ingredients of an exquisite
proverb to be _sense, shortness, and salt_. A proverb is distinguished
from a maxim or an apophthegm by that brevity which condenses a thought
or a metaphor, where one thing is said and another is to be applied.
This often produces wit, and that quick pungency which excites surprise,
but strikes with conviction; this gives it an epigrammatic turn. George
Herbert entitled the small collection which he formed "Jacula
Prudentium," Darts or Javelins! something hurled and striking deeply; a
characteristic of a proverb which possibly Herbert may have borrowed
from a remarkable passage in Plato's dialogue of "Protagoras or the
Sophists."

The influence of proverbs over the minds and conversations of a whole
people is strikingly illustrated by this philosopher's explanation of
the term _to laconise_,--the mode of speech peculiar to the
Lacedaemonians. This people affected to appear _unlearned_, and seemed
only emulous to excel the rest of the Greeks in fortitude and in
military skill. According to Plato's notion, this was really a political
artifice, with a view to conceal their pre-eminent wisdom. With the
jealousy of a petty state, they attempted to confine their renowned
sagacity within themselves, and under their military to hide their
contemplative character! The philosopher assures those who in other
cities imagined they _laconised_, merely by imitating the severe
exercises and the other warlike manners of the Lacedaemonians, that they
were grossly deceived; and thus curiously describes the sort of wisdom
which this singular people practised.

"If any one wish to converse with the meanest of the Lacedaemonians, he
will at first find him, for the most part, apparently despicable in
conversation; but afterwards, whe