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PROVERBS PROVIDENCE. 



currency, and makes them what they are. Boileau 

 speaks of happy expressions, 



<?i, par l prompt efet d'un tel rejouitittnt, 

 Deciriment qutlquej'oi* proeerbet en naitsnnt. 



Such a phrase is Napoleon's, "There is but one 

 step from the sublime to the ridiculous," which may 

 lie almost said to have become a proverb, as is the 

 case with many other expressions struck out in 

 happy moments, or proceeding from conspicuous 

 persons. The proverb is nearly related to the 

 motto, symbol, device, sentence, apologue, fable, 

 &c. ; and the limit cannot always be easily drawn. 

 Burckhardt gives us the following as Arabic prov- 

 erbs : The wolf was asked, " For what art thou 

 following those poor little sheep ?'' He replied, 

 "The dust upon which they tread is good for my 

 poor little eyes." And this: one man said to another, 

 " O slave, I have bought thee." "That is thy 

 business," replied he. " But wilt thou run away ?" 

 " That is my business," replied he. These, having 

 at once a narrative character, and a concise, pointed 

 expression, partake of the nature of the apologue 

 and the proverb. Certain sallies of popular humour, 

 ludicrous personifications, &c., which are frequently 

 repeated, are sometimes called proverbs ; as, ''What 

 a dust we kick up, as the fly said to the cart-wheel." 

 Proverbs, being the offspring of popular feeling and 

 experience, often serve, of course, to keep alive 

 the recollection of peculiar views and customs ; and 

 a collection of the sayings of different nations would 

 form an exceedingly useful and interesting work. 

 Burckhardt collected, at Cairo, a number of Arabic 

 proverbs, which have been published, in a quarto 

 volume, under the title Arabic Proverbs, or the 

 Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians 

 (London, 1830.) Sailer has published the Wisdom 

 of the Streets, or the Meaning and Use of German 

 Proverbs (Augsburg, 1810, in German.) Many 

 other collections of German proverbs exist, but 

 none very complete. The collections of English 

 and Scotch proverbs are numerous ; we may merely 

 specify Ray's, Allan Ramsay's, and Henderson's. 

 PROVERBS, BOOK OF. See Solomon. 

 PROVIDENCE, the largest place and only city 

 in Rhode Island, is situated at the head of the tide- 

 waters of Narraganset bay, about thirty miles from 

 the Atlantic ocean, and is forty miles south-south- 

 west of Boston, 190 north east of New York, 394 

 north-east of Washington ; Ion. 71 26' W. ; lat. 

 41 51' N. : population, in 1820, 11,767; in 1825, 

 15,941 ; in 1830, 16,832; in 1832, about 20,000. 

 It is thus the second town in New England, in point 

 of population. It is built on both sides of what is 

 usually styled Providence river, which is only an 

 arm of the bay reaching to the mouth of Moosha- 

 suck river, at the upper part of the city, its two 

 sections being connected by two bridges, one ninety 

 feet in width. Vessels of nine hundred tons burthen 

 can come to the wharves. The buildings are chiefly 

 wood, uniformly painted white, though there are 

 many of granite and brick. Some of the dwelling- 

 houses are spacious and elegant, and those on the 

 high ground on the eastern side of the town are 

 remarkable for beauty of situation. The chie 

 public buildings are the state-house, of brick ; the 

 arcade, of granite ; fourteen houses of public wor 

 ship ; the halls of Brown university ; the Dexter 

 asylum ; the Friends' boarding-school ; five publii 

 school-houses, and several large manufacturing 

 establishments. The arcade is the most splendi< 

 building of the kind in the Union ; it has twi 

 fronts, of hammered granite each seventy-two fee 

 wide, presenting colonnades, of the pure Greciar 

 Doric, of six columns each. It was finished in 1828 



and the whole cost was about 130,000 dollars. Of 

 he churches, the first Baptist, the two Unitarian, 

 and one of the Episcopal (St John's), are handsome 

 tructures. Brown university (originally founded 

 at Warren, in 1764, and removed to Providence in 

 1770) takes its name from Nicholas Brown, its most 

 munificent benefactor. It has two halls.both of brick, 

 viz. University hall and Hope college. They are 

 placed on some of the highest ground in the city. 

 The college library contains about 6000 volumes. 

 Three other libraries within the walls, belonging to 

 iterary societies, present an aggregate of 6000 vol- 

 imes, in addition. The government of the university 

 s vested in a board of fellows, consisting of twelve 

 members, eight of whom, including the president, 

 must be Baptists ; and a board of trustees, of thirty- 

 six members, twenty-two of whom must be Baptists, 

 five Friends, five Episcopalians, and four Coiigre- 

 rationalists. The acting officers of instruction, at 

 Present, are the president, three professors, and two 

 ;utors. There are above 100 students. Whole 

 number of graduates to 1827, inclusive, 1119. The 

 present condition of the institution is prosperous. 

 The public schools were established in 1800, and 

 now consist of five grammar schools, five primary 

 schools, and one African school. They originated 

 with the mechanics' and manufacturers' association. 

 The Providence library contains about 1600 vol- 

 umes ; the mechanics' apprentices' library about 

 1000 ; and that of the Athenaeum about 1500. 



Providence was early a place of much commerci- 

 al enterprise. In the first half of the year 1791, 

 the duties paid on imports and tonnage amounted to 

 59,766 dollars 14 cents; in the year 1831, the whole 

 amount collected was 227,000 dollars, notwithstand- 

 ing the diminution of the rates of duties on many 

 articles, which reduced the sum 36,000 dollars, at 

 least. The imports in 1831 amounted to 457,717 

 dollars; the exports, domestic 199,193 dollars, 

 foreign 130,441 dollars, total 329,634 dollars. The 

 amount of shipping registered is 12,362 tons; en- 

 rolled, 4788 tons. There are four insurance com- 

 panies, with an aggregate capital of 360,000 dol- 

 lars ; and fifteen banks, with an aggregate capital 

 of 4,502,800 dollars, besides a branch of the United 

 States bank, with a capital of 800,000 dollars,and the 

 savings bank, capital 100,000 dollars. The Black- 

 stone, canal, extending from Providence to the town 

 of Worcester (Mass.), was finished in 1828; whole 

 cost about 700,000 dollars. It is navigated by 

 thirty boats, from twenty-five to thirty tons each. 

 There are ten newspapers published in Providence, 

 two of which are daily. Providence is most distin- 

 guished for its manufactures. There are in Provi- 

 dence four cotton factories, two moved by steam 

 and two by water power, employing a gross capital of 

 327,489 dollars. They contain 11,194 spindles, and 

 244 looms. They give employment to 352 persons 

 directly, besides 739 others, dependent, more or 

 less, on them, with an aggregate annual amount of 

 45,801 dollars wages. They consume annually 

 434,971 pounds of cotton ; spin 382,875 pounds of 

 yarn, and weave 1,458,000 yards of cloth, mostly 

 of the finest and most valuable quality, to the esti 

 mated value of 247,860 dollars. There are also 

 extensive bleacheries, in which very large quantities 

 of cotton cloth, from many of the factories in Rhode 

 Island and other states, are bleached, calendered 

 and beetled. There are iron founderies and machine 

 shops, employed principally in building cotton 

 machinery, and estimated to constitute one third of 

 the whole amount of this business carried on in the 

 state, there are, besides, establishments for working 

 sheet-iron, in tin, copper, brass, &c. ; a large glass- 

 house, for the manufacture and cutting of flint-glass ; 



