May we not find the "whole duty of man" condensed into a few brief sentences, which have been expressed by thoughtful men in all ages and in countries far apart?--such as: "Love thy neighbour as thyself," "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The chief themes of all teachers of morality are: benevolence and beneficence; tolerance of the opinions of others; self-control; the acquisition of knowledge--that jewel beyond price; the true uses of wealth; the advantages of resolute, manly exertion; the dignity of labour; the futility of worldly pleasures; the fugacity of time; man's individual insignificance. They are never weary of inculcating taciturnity in preference to loquacity, and the virtues of patience and resignation. They iterate and reiterate the fact that true happiness is to be found only in contentment; and they administer consolation and infuse hope by reminding us that as dark days are followed by bright days, so times of bitter adversity are followed by seasons of sweet prosperity; and thus, like the immortal Sir Hudibras, when "in doleful dumps", we may "cheer ourselves with ends of verse, and sayings of philosophers."
In the following small selection of aphorisms, a considerable proportion are drawn from Eastern literature. Indian wisdom is represented by passages from the great epics, the Mahábhárata and the Rámáyana; the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa, two Sanskrit versions of the famous collection of apologues known in Europe as the Fables of Bidpaï, or Pilpay; the Dharma-sastra of Manu; Bháravi, Mágha, Bhartrihari, and other Hindu poets. Specimens of the mild teachings of Buddha and his more notable followers are taken from the Dhammapada (Path of Virtue) and other canonical works; pregnant sayings of the Jewish Fathers, from the Talmud; Moslem moral philosophy is represented by extracts from Arabic and Persian writers (among the great poets of Persia are, Firdausí, Sa'dí, Háfiz, Nizámí, Omar Khayyám, Jámí); while the proverbial wisdom of the Chinese and the didactic writings of the sages of Burmah are also occasionally cited.
The ordinary reader will probably be somewhat surprised to discover in the aphorisms of the ancient Greeks and Hindus several close parallels to the doctrines of the Old and New Testaments, and he will have reasoned justly if he conclude that the so-called "heathens" could have derived their spiritual light only from the same Source as that which inspired the Hebrew prophets and the Christian apostles.
Among English writers of aphorisms Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, is pre-eminent, but none of his pithy sentences find place here, because they are procurable in many inexpensive forms, (e.g., Counsels from my Lord Bacon, 1892), and must be familiar to what is termed "the average general reader." The Enchiridion of Frances Quarles and the Resolves of Owen Feltham are, however, laid under contribution, as also Robert Chamberlain, an author who is probably unknown to many pluming themselves on their thorough acquaintance with English literature, some of whose aphorisms (published in 1638, under the title of Nocturnal Lucubrations) I have deemed worthy of reproduction.
In more modern times, with the sole exception of William Hazlitt, our country has produced no very successful writer of aphorisms. Colton's Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think, went through several editions soon after its first publication in 1820; it is described by Mr. John Morley--and not unfairly--as being "so vapid, so wordy, so futile as to have a place among those books which dispense with parody"; it is "an awful example to anyone who is tempted to try his hand at an aphorism." Mr. Morley is hardly less severe in speaking of the "Thoughts" in Theophrastus Such: "the most insufferable of all deadly-lively prosing in our sublunary world." However this may be, assuredly other works of the author of Adam Bede will be found to furnish many examples of admirable apothegms.
It only remains to add that, bearing in mind that a great collection of gravities commonly proves quite as wearisome reading as a large compilation of gaieties, or facetiæ, I have confined my selection of "sayings of the wise" within the limits of a pocket-volume.
W. A. C.
BOOK OF WISE SAYINGS.
1.
