Foolish persons have always been noted for parading their folly, and sounding a trumpet to proclaim their lack of understanding. So Solomon says: "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul." "The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright; but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness." "When he that is a fool walketh in the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool,"--his scanty supply of sense is not enough to last him to the end of his journey. There is a modern proverb to the same effect: "He has not wit enough to last him over night." Everything the fool undertakes comes to grief. "He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet and drinketh damage." "The labor of the fool wearieth every one, because he knoweth not how to go to the city." "The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going." "Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly." No discipline can be too severe for the fool. "Judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools." "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back." But Solomon is not sanguine that the most rigorous course will produce extraordinary results. "A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool." "Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth." "Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?" One can almost see that picture--the fool wandering about the city with money in his hand, inquiring where a person in need of it might purchase a commodity of good common sense. "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." In many other proverbs is the fool gibbeted. "As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool." "The legs of the lame are not equal; so is a parable in the mouth of fools." "As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, making a dangerous weapon, so is he that giveth honor to a fool." "As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools." "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool." In one chapter Solomon describes a group of foolish persons. "For three things the earth is disquieted and for four which it can not bear; for a servant when he reigneth"--the modern instance is the "beggar on horseback,"--"and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married; and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress." These four characters "play such fantastic tricks before high heaven," that whether the "angels weep" or not, the earth groans and is "disquieted." And yet Solomon seems to have found a