It has been declared, without provoking contradiction, that Spanish proverbs are undoubtedly wiser and wittier, as well as more numerous than those of any other language. At least a dozen collections of these tabloids of wisdom have been published in Spain; the largest, which was compiled by Juan de Yriarte, containing no fewer than 24,000 proverbs. At least half-a-dozen volumes were in existence in the time of Cervantes; and from these sources it may be presumed he went for much of the sage and pointed witticisms with which Sancho Panza garnishes his conversation. Though it was not the purpose of the author of _Don Quixote_ to select the most characteristic and representative specimens in the language, he has brought together in his book some 300 examples of the _refranes_ which were then in current use; and from those which he considered worthy of quotation I have made the following selection: “The devil lurks behind the cross.”--I. 6; II. 33, 47. “What is good is never too abundant.”--I. 6. “Many go for wool, and come back shorn.”--I. 7; II. 14, 43, 67. “One swallow does not make a summer.”--I. 13. “There is no recollection which time does not obliterate, nor grief which death does not destroy.”--I. 15. “There is nothing certain in this life.”--I. 15. “What hath been, hath been.”--I. 20. “All will come out in the washing.”--I. 20, 22; II. 36. “Do not ask as a favour what you can obtain by force.”--I. 21. “When one door is shut, another is opened.”--I. 21. “Let him be wretched who thinks himself so.”--I. 21. “No discourse that is long can be pleasing.”--I. 21. “Man goes as God is pleased.”--I. 22. He who sings frightens away his ills.”--I. 22. “‘No’ contains the same number of letters as ‘Ay.’”--I. 22. “To do good to low fellows is to throw water into the sea.”--I. 23. “The absent feel and fear every ill.”--I. 25. “Many think to find bacon where there are not even hooks to hang it on.”--I. 25; II. 55, 65, 73. “He who does not intend to pay is not troubled in making his bargain.”--I. 28. “The danger is generally in the delay.”--I. 29, 46; II. 41, 71. “A bird in the hand is better than an eagle on the wing.”--I. 31; II. 12, 71. “We must suit our behaviour to the occasion.”--I. 31; II. 3. “To know where the shoe pinches.”--I. 32. “You often find a good drinker under a bad cloak.”--I. 33. “He who gives quickly, gives twice.”--I. 34. “There is a great distance between said and done.”--I. 46. “Diligence is the mother of success.”--I. 46. “Every one is the son of his own works.”--I. 47. “Since I am a man, I may come to be Pope.”--I. 47. “When the head aches, all the members feel it.”--II. 2. “Honours change manners.”--II. 4. “Everyone is as God has made him, and very often worse.”--II. 4.