[5] Let serve for further proof this eminently witty old German proverb, which, despite its apparent length, has not forfeited its character as such. I shall prefer to leave it in the original: Man spricht, an viererlei Leuten ist Mangel auf Erden: an Pfaffen, sonst dürfte einer nit 6 bis 7 Pfruenden; an Adelichen, sonst wollte nit jeder Bauer ein Junker sein; an Huren, sonst würden die Handwerk Eheweiber und Nunnen nit treiben; an Juden, sonst würden Christen nit wuchern. [6] When Erasmus, after discussing and rejecting the definitions of those who had gone before him, himself defines the proverb thus, Celebre dictum, scitâ quâpiam novitate insigne, it appears to me that he has not escaped the fault which he has blamed in others—that, namely, of confounding the accidental adjuncts of a _good_ proverb with the necessary conditions of _every_ proverb. In rigour the whole second clause of the definition should be dismissed, and _Celebre dictum_ alone remain. Better Eifelein (_Sprichwörter des Deutschen Volkes_, Friburg, 1840, p. x.): Das Sprichwort ist ein mit öffentlichem Gepräge ausgemünzter Saz, der seinen Curs und anerkannten Werth unter dem Volke hat. [7] It suggests, however, the admirable Spanish proverb, spoken no doubt out of the same conviction: Dios me dè contienda, con quien me entienda. [8] Chi non può fare sua vendetta è debile, chi non vuole è vile. [9] Quintilian’s words (_Inst._ 5. 11. 41), which are to the same effect, must be taken with the same exception; Neque enim durâssent hæc in æternum, nisi vera omnibus viderentur; and also Don Quixote’s: Paréceme me, Sancho, que no ay refrán que no sea verdadéro, porque todas son sentencias sacadas de la misma experiencia, madre de las ciencias todas. [10] Thus in a proverb about proverbs, the Italians say, with a true insight into this its prerogative: Il proverbio _s’invecchia_, e chi vuol far bene, vi si specchia. [11] The name which the proverb bears in Spanish points to this fact, that popularity is a necessary condition of it. This name is not _proverbio_, for that in Spanish signifies an apothegm, an aphorism, a maxim; but _refrán_, which is _a referendo_, from the frequency of its repetition; yet see Diez, _Etymol. Wörterbuch_, p. 284. The etymology of the Greek παροιμία is somewhat doubtful, but it too means probably a _trite, wayside_ saying. [12] The same, under a different image, in Spanish: Larga soga tira, quien por muerte agena suspira. [13] Im Becher ersaufen mehr als im Meere. [14] In Wein und Bier ertrinken mehr denn im Wasser. [15] Here is the explanation of the perplexity of Erasmus. Deinde fit, _nescio quo pacto_, ut sententia proverbio quasi vibrata feriat acrius auditoris animum, et aculeos quosdam cogitationum relinquat infixos.