nd Pope
and Milton may be, and however often repeated, they are not proverbs.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

This line expresses a deep truth, and is as simply expressed as any
proverb, but it is merely a quotation from Pope. Again,

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"

is true enough, and well enough expressed to bear frequent quotation,
but it is not a "fragment of elder wisdom." It is merely Pope's
excellent way of saying that foolish people will interfere in delicate
matters in which wise people would never think of meddling. Here,
again, the language is not particularly simple as in proverbs, and
this will help us to remember that quotations are not proverbs. There
is, however, a quotation from a poem by Patrick A. Chalmers, a
present-day poet, which has become as common as a proverb:--

"What's lost upon the roundabouts
We pulls up on the swings."

The fact that this is expressed simply and even ungrammatically does
not, of course, turn it into a proverb.

Though many of the proverbs which are repeated in nearly all the
languages of the world are without date, we know the times when a few
of them were first quoted. In Greek writings we already find the
half-true proverb, "Rolling stones gather no moss;" and, "There's many
a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," which warned the Greeks, as it
still warns us, of the uncertainty of human things. We can never be
sure of anything until it has actually happened. In Latin writings we
find almost the same idea expressed in the familiar proverb, "A bird
in hand is worth two in the bush"--a fact which no one will deny.

St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek into Latin in the
fourth century and wrote many wise books besides, quotes two proverbs
which we know well: "It is not wise to look a gift horse in the
mouth," and, "Liars must have good memories." The first again deals,
like so many of the early proverbs, with the knowledge of animals. A
person who knows about horses can tell from the state of their mouths
much about their age, health, and general value. But, the proverb
warns us, it is neither gracious nor wise to examine too closely what
is given to us freely. It may not be quite to our liking, but after
all it is a present.

The proverb, "Liars must have good memories," means, of course, that
people who tell lies are liable to forget just what tale they have
told on any particular occasion, and may easily contrad