The prostrate Saul was warned that it was hard for him to "kick against the pricks," to resist the Higher Power, to rebel against the guiding goad, and the utterance was a very familiar one in his ears. It will be found in the Odes of Pindar, the tragedies of Euripides and Æschylus, and in the writings of Terence. Another familiar Biblical text is that "One soweth and another reapeth."[93:A] This, too, would appeal at once to the hearers as a piece of their own proverbial lore. It is at least as ancient as Hesiod, who wrote his "Theogony," and introduced this proverb therein, some nine hundred years before the Christian era. It is in all countries an accepted belief that the Higher Powers, under whatever name worshipped, help those who help themselves. Thus, the Spaniards say, "Pray to God and ply the hammer," while the Greeks taught, "Call on Athene but exert yourself as well." Another very expressive Greek proverb was "A piped-out life," as applied to one who, in rioting and dissipation, in feasting and drunkenness, had carried out that grim ideal, "A short life and a merry one," who to lulling siren song, the harp, the tabret, and the viol, sailed swiftly down the stream of Time. A graphic picture again is this--"You have burst in upon the bees," applied to one who causelessly, needlessly meddled with matters that were no concern of his, and thereby brought swift retribution on himself. The proverbs born on Roman soil were considerably fewer in number than those of Greek birth, and this is a result that we should naturally anticipate, since the Romans had not the strong religious feeling, nor the poetic afflatus, nor the subtle thought of the Greeks. The Romans in this, as in much else, were borrowers rather than producers. At the same time the sterling common-sense and energy of the Roman people is seen in their proverbs. They are business-like and practical, inculcating patience, perseverance, independence, and frugality; dealing in a wise spirit with the affairs of life, marriage, education, agriculture, and the like. How true, for instance, to all experience is the "Aliquis in omnibus est nullus in singulis," while in some, heathen as they were in origin, a high moral sense is reached, as, for example, "Conscientia, mille testes." How expressive is "Res in cardine est." The matter is on the hinge, it must soon now be settled one way or the other, for, as another proverb hath it, "A door must be open or shut"--there can here be no middle course of procrastination and uncertainty. How good, again, the oft-quoted "Qui cito dat bis dat"--"He giveth twice that giveth in a trice," as an old English version rhymingly renders it, or the "Quot homines tot sententiæ." "I see wel the olde proverbe is true," quoth Gascoigne in his "Glasse of Government," which saith, "So many men so many mindes." The French reading is "Autant d'hommes, autant d'avis."