[241:A] The Book of Proverbs is no less rich in wisdom than the Book of Ecclesiasticus, but the latter being somewhat less familiar to many readers we prefer to draw upon its pages in illustration of our English adages. [242:A] "To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow; To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares; To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires." --_Spenser._ [243:A] In the following passage Bacon shows us hope as a veritable life-preserver. "Hope, being the best of all the affections and passions, is very powerful to prolong life, if, like a nodding muse, it does not fall asleep and languish, but continually feeds the fancy: and therefore such as propose certain ends to be compassed, thriving and prospering therein according to their desire, are commonly long-lived; but having attained to their highest hopes, all their expectations and desires being satisfied, live not long afterwards." [244:A] In Cotgrave's Dictionary defined as "store, plentie, abundance, great fulnesse, enough." [245:A] "Babel's projectors, seeking a name, found confusion; and Icarus, by flying too high, melted his waxen wings and fell into the sea." "_Grey cap for a green head._" Gray express the idea very forcibly: "Ambition this shall tempt to rise, Then hurl the wretch from high, To bitter scorn a sacrifice, And grinning infamy!" [246:A] "Life is like wine, he that would drink it pure must not drain it to the dregs."--_Sir William Temple._ [246:B] _Coleridge._ [249:A] CHAUCER, _The Marchaunt's Tale_. [249:B] "Men at some time are masters of their fates."--SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Cæsar_. [253:A] The friends of a Roman patrician condemned by Tiberias to death, dwelt strongly on the injustice of the sentence. "That," said he, "my friends, is my greatest consolation, you do not surely wish that I had been guilty!" [256:A] "But did this boaster threaten, did he pray, Or, by his own example, urge their stay? None, none of these, but ran himself away." --DRYDEN, _Ovid's Metamorphoses_, Book xiii. [256:B] The Spanish revel in these proverbs of sarcastic nature. Another, for instance, is, "Praise me, friends, I love my daughters," applied to those who expect commendation for fulfilling the most obvious duties. [259:A] In Germany they say, "Siedet der Topf, so blühet die Freundschaft"--while the pot boils the friendship blooms. [259:B] In Welsh proverb lore, "Have a horse of your own and then you can borrow another." [262:A] "Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done is done." _Macbeth._