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CHIEFLY TAKEN FROM THE

ADAGIA OF ERASMUS,

WITH EXPLANATIONS;

AND FURTHER ILLUSTRATED BY CORRESPONDING

EXAMPLES FROM THE

SPANISH, ITALIAN, FRENCH & ENGLISH

LANGUAGES.

BY ROBERT BLAND, M. D. F. S. A.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. EGERTON, MILITARY LIBRARY,

WHITEHALL,

London: Printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar.

&c. &c. &c.

VOLUME THE SECOND.

Mendacem memorem, esse oportet.

"Il faut qu'un menteur ait bonne mémoire,” a liar ought to have a good memory. When a transaction is related exactly as it occurred, there is no probability that the relater should at any time vary in his account. The circumstance must for ever dwell in his mind, in the very manner he described it. But if a fictitious story is told, he must have a good memory to be able at all times to tell it in the same manner. The liar therefore has little chance that his fiction shall remain long undiscovered, for should no other circumstance lead to the detection of it, he will, by not adhering always to the same story, betray the imposition he has practised; and it is well that it is so, as there is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be detected in telling a lie. “Clear and round

VOL. II.

B

(6)

round dealing," Lord Verulam says, "is the honour of man's nature, while a mixture of falsehood, is like allay in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work better, but it embaseth it." Montaigne says, very happily, "To accuse a man of lying, is as much as to say, he is a brave towards God, and a coward towards man."

Qui bene conjiciet, hunc Vatem perhibeto
optimum.

Let him who conjectures best, who from circumstances draws the most rational conclusions, be esteemed your best counsellor or adviser, or more literally, let him be your soothsayer or prophet.

"He that conjectures least amiss,

Of all the best of prophets is."

Do not, like the Africans, and other illiterate and uncultivated people, consult astrologers, or diviners, with the view of learning your future destiny, which cannot with any certainty be foretold. It is true, as is said of persons having the second sight in Scotland,

there

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