_It is better to dwell in the corner of the roof Than in a wide house with a fractious woman_ (Pr. 25^{24}; cp. 21^{9}). _A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike_ (Pr. 27^{15}). One saying there is on this topic, which comes nearer to our thought of humour, its bitterness being forgotten in the quaintness of the simile employed: _As the going up a sandy way is to the feet of the aged, So is a wife full of words to a quiet man_ (E. 25^{20}). Some of the characters pictured in Chapter VII. lent themselves to sarcasm, particularly the Sluggard, and the Fool; but, if certain of the proverbs about them may seem too heavy-handed, touched with the camel brand of humour, others surely come near to being “the real thing.” Of the Sluggard the remark, _He that is slack in his work is brother of him that is a destroyer_ (Pr. 18^{9}) is true, undeniably true, but a trifle icy in its wit. More amusing and much more genial were these sayings, which we may repeat from Chapter VII.: _The sluggard saith, “There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets”_ (Pr. 26^{13})--_The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish, it wearieth him to bring it again to his mouth_ (Pr. 26^{15})--and, above all, the Sluggard’s Anthem, _Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep_ (Pr. 24^{33}). Of the Fool, some observations are almost savage, such as Pr. 17^{12} (quoted above), and this--_Though thou bray a fool in a mortar ... yet will his folly not depart from him_ (Pr. 27^{22}). The following are more subtle and on the whole more kind: _The legs of the lame hang loose, so doth a story in the mouth of fools_ (Pr. 26^{7})--_The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth_ (Pr. 17^{24})--_He that discourseth to a fool is as one discoursing to him that slumbereth; at the end of it he will say, “What is it?”_ (E. 22^{8}). But the Fool and Mr. Lazybones were ever an easy target: it needed a prettier wit to slay the Self-Advertiser with a word, but does not this saying despatch him neatly, _It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search out their own glory is not glory_ (Pr. 25^{27})? Here is a pleasing pair of contrasts--to the disadvantage respectively of a would-be “silent Solomon,” and of a Chatterbox: _There is that keepeth silence, for he hath no answer to make; And there is that keepeth silence as knowing his time_ (E. 20^{6}). _There is that keepeth silence and is found wise; And there is that is hated for his much talk_ (E. 20^{5}). In conclusion we give some proverbs that seem to the present writer still more clearly to come within the category of modern humour, whether by reason of their sly shrewdness or some droll comparison, or even a frank intention to rouse our sense of fun: _He that pleadeth his cause first seemeth just, but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out_ (Pr. 18^{17}).