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53
TWO PENN'ORTH O' PROVERBS
“Five bunches a penny, Sweet Lavender!”
London Cries
London Cries
INTRODUCTION
I Martin am, the most enlighten'd Fàkir.Rightly pronounce my name, good folk! and hark here!
I wisdom have, although my verses are queer.
1— OF ENDS PROVERBIAL
Like to a needle whose point protrudes from the side of a hay-stack,So is the proverb's end, keen but unseen by the eyes of the thousand.
Is it the fault of the proverb? Rather the thousands' when they, slack
To sight any meaning at all, would miss even a four story house-end.
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2— OF TRUSTING IN PROVERBS
Put not your whole trust in proverbs even if Solomon seal them!Holes may be pick'd on both sides; in a third may be hollow and wrangle:
As this — that keen eyes has Charity, sometimes tho' lashes conceal them.
The same was made known to the soldier, for forty tied to the triangle.
3— OF IDLE PRAYING
Pax vobiscum! said one to the pedlars, not buying of their wares.So is the soap-less woman would clean her house with the noise and th' esteam of prayers.
4— OF GROUNDS OF PROPHECY
A duck laid — an egg (with a hen) that her chicken would turn out a duckling;And it took to the water at once.
So a man not a dunce
Is much the best fitted for prophet, and a dern'd sight more certain of chuckling.
5— OF WISDOM ALWAYS
Every goose counts for sage in due season; the wise one is wise in all weathers;And the wiser may keep himself warm when the fool has been pluck'd of his feathers.
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6— OF A DRUNKARD
The drunkard hath swallow'd a leak: wherefore is his thirst never sated.Truly the sire of the Danaids this father of sieves may be rated.
Through the whole of his life he perceives how man's debts may be all liquidated.
7— OF WOMAN
Says David — The virtuous woman is good as a crown to her gaffer;Says Emerson — Happen what may, compensation will probably follor.
Good balanceth Evil, albeit the rate of exchanges may differ:
Out of Concord the woman not virtuous her holder may rate as a dolour.
8— OF THE WAYS OF INFERIORS
It is well, as old Isaac (not Walton)Observes, to be duly observant of the ways of inferior beasts.
Is the Ant (Go to, Sluggard!) at fault in
His store for his Thanksgiving Feasts?
Shall Man, the beasts' hub,
Be less wise than a web-footed Spider?
Now sit thou beside her,
And learn — Will they teach us? the beasts.
There's the rub.
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9— OF MEANS AND NATURE
Though an ass bray in a mortar, yet will the shell not depart;Though a nut 's stript to the kernel, all the same it 's a nut at the heart.
Means, I remark, may be many: only do thou choose the right!
Nature is one and eternal: her robes fitting loosely or tight.
10— OF TEACHING
Thou canst not hope thy fellow's thought to shape to fit thy frame:The brain, yea! of the veriest Ape shall escape thy spinal notions.
Wherefore though I should write a book thy need may skip the same:
Leaving my words as weeds, flung from my mind's vast oceans.
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