A very quaint old proverb is that which tells us that "He was scarce of news that told that his father was hanged," and a very excellent rule of conduct is this: "Whether it be to friend or foe talk not of other men's lives." We are warned, too, that "He who chatters to you will chatter also of you," and the experience of most of us will confirm the wisdom of the adage. Other happy sayings are these: "No one will repeat the matter if it be not said"; "Sudden trust heralds sudden repentance"; "More have repented of speech than of silence"; "A fool will neither give nor keep counsel"; "He that tells all he knows will also tell what he does not know"; "To tell our own secrets is folly, to tell those of others treachery"; "Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend's friend hath a friend"--great discretion is therefore necessary. Heywood warns the man who thinks himself secure: "Some heare and see him whom he heareth and seeth not For fieldes have eies and woods have eares ye wot," an idea that we find yet earlier in a manuscript, "King Edward and the Shepherd," written about the year 1300: "The were bettur be styll, Wode has erys, felde has syght." So gracious a gift of Heaven to the sons of men as hope must necessarily find recognition in our proverbial wisdom. Our readers will recall the lines in Pope's "Essay on Man," where he declares that "Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be, blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home Rests and expatiates in a life to come." And in "Measure for Measure" we read that "the miserable have no other medicine, but only hope"; hence the saying: "Quench not hope, for when hope dies all dies." The Italians say: "L'ultima che si perde è la speranza"--the last thing lost is hope,[242:A] and the terrible words in the "Paradise Lost" recur to us: "So farewell hope, and, with hope, farewell fear, Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost, Evil, be thou my good." Lord Bacon, being in York House garden, looking at some fishermen as they were throwing their nets in what was then the pellucid and silvery Thames, asked them what they would take for their catch. They mentioned a certain price, and his lordship offered them somewhat less, which they declined to accept. They drew up their nets and in it were but three small fishes, and Lord Bacon said that it had been better for them had they closed with his offer. They replied that they had hoped that the catch would have been much greater, and his lordship in response reminded them of the proverb, "Hope is a good breakfast, but a bad supper";[243:A] and an admirably true saying it is.