we learn in "Hudibras," and the sentiment re-appears in the Spanish adage, "It is better they should say, here he ran away, than here he died." The English dictum "Charity begins at home," is paralleled in this, "My teeth are nearer to me than my kindred," while our "Well begun is half done" re-appears in "A beard well lathered is half shaved." The well-known English proverb, "One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," is happily rendered in Spain by the assertion, "A pig's tail will not make a good arrow"; while our advice to the cobbler to stick to his last, to attend to what he understands, has its counterpart in "Fritterman, to thy fritters." The temptation to quote is great, but we will, in conclusion, set down but half-a-dozen more, leaving their interpretation to the sapience of our readers. "A friend to everybody and to nobody is the same thing," "Truth and oil are ever above," "Words and feathers are carried away by the wind," "A little gall makes bitter much honey," "It is better to accept one than to be promised two," "When we have crossed the sea the saint is forgotten." The proverbs of fair Italy are very numerous. While not a few are sound in teaching and justly extol the ways of truth and uprightness, of honour and righteous dealing, others are too often merely the advocates of unmitigated selfishness, are strongly imbued with cynicism, and teach a general distrust and suspicion and the glorification of revenge. The political condition of the country, split up for so many centuries into petty principalities and republics, in an almost constant state of jealousy and feud, has no doubt greatly influenced its proverb-lore. Thus, "Who knows not to flatter, knows not to reign," tells of a government at the mercy of cabals, while the saying, "An open countenance, but close thoughts," indicates the wisdom in an atmosphere of suspicion of a seeming content and the importance of great reticence of speech; while the ingratitude of princes is summed up in the adage, "He who serves at court dies on straw."[107:A] Fierce insurrection and sanguinary suppression have fed the fiery Southern temperament with burning hatred. Hence we get utterances so terrible in their vindictiveness as these: "He who cannot revenge himself is weak, he who will not is contemptible"; "Revenge of a hundred years old hath still its sucking teeth"--is yet but at its commencement. What internecine strife becomes under such influence is seen in the utterance, "When war begins hell opens." The soft Italian tongue lends itself readily to musical rhythm and pleasing alliteration, features that are ordinarily entirely lost in translation. This attractive cadence may be seen, for instance, in "Chi piglia leoni in assenza suol temer dei topi in presenza," or "Chi ha arte da per tutto ha parte." There is often, too, a pregnant brevity, as "Amor regge senza legge," and a very happy use of hyperbole.