may be suitable to the gravity
of my office: for, 'Where there's plenty of meat, the supper will soon
be complete;' 'He that shuffles does not cut;' 'A good hand makes a
short game;' and, 'It requires a good brain to know when to give and
retain.'"

"Courage, Sancho," cried Don Quixote; "squeeze, tack, and string your
proverbs together; here are none to oppose you. My mother whips me, and
I whip the top. Here am I exhorting thee to suppress thy proverbs, and
in an instant thou hast spewed forth a whole litany of them, which are
as foreign from the subject as an old ballad. Remember, Sancho, I do not
say that a proverb properly applied is amiss; but, to throw in, and
string together old saws helter-skelter, renders conversation altogether
mean and despicable.

"When you appear on horseback do not lean backward over the saddle, nor
stretch out your legs stiffly from the horse's belly, nor let them hang
dangling in a slovenly manner, as if you were upon the back of Dapple;
for some ride like jockeys, and some like gentlemen.

"Be very moderate in sleeping; for he who does not rise with the sun
cannot enjoy the day; and observe, O Sancho, industry is the mother of
prosperity; and laziness, her opposite, never saw the accomplishment of
a good wish.

"This is all the advice, friend Sancho, that occurs to me at present;
hereafter, as occasions offer, my instructions will be ready, provided
thou art mindful to inform me of the state of thy affairs."

"Sir," answered Sancho, "I see very well that all your worship has told
me is wholesome and profitable; but what shall I be the better for it if
I cannot keep it in my head? It is true, I shall not easily forget what
you have said about paring my nails, and marrying again if the
opportunity offers; but for your other quirks and quillets, I protest
they have already gone out of my head as clean as last year's clouds;
and therefore, let me have them in writing; for though I cannot read
them myself, I will give them to my confessor, that he may repeat and
drive them into me in time of need."

"Heaven defend me!" said Don Quixote, "how scurvy doth it look in a
governor to be unable to read or write! Indeed, Sancho, I must needs
tell thee that when a man has not been taught to read, or is
left-handed, it argues that his parentage was very low, or that, in
early life, he was so indocile and perverse that his teachers could beat
nothing good into him. Truly this is a great defect