PROVERBS. 



3*9 



tn make u fresh translation of the " Bits das Philosophes" in verse, with 

 numerous additions, to which he appended biographical notices in prose 

 of the philosophers, amongst whom he included not only warriors like 

 Alexander the Great and Ptolemy, King of Egypt, but imaginary per- 

 sonages, such as Simicratis, Fonydes, Arehasan, and Longinou. His book 

 was a great success, for, in addition to the many manuscripts with 

 miniatures, the printers of the fifteenth century published several editions 

 of it. 



These different collections of proverbs, attributed to such famous men as 



Fig. 278. The Wolf cheating the Donkey. Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving from the 

 " Dyalogue des Creaturea" (Qouda, Gerart Leeu, 1482, in folio). In the Library of M. Ambroiae 

 Firmin-Didot, Paris. 



Solomon, Cato, and the ancient Greek and Latin philosophers, may be looked 

 upon as the fruits of scholastic erudition and literary invention, while other 

 collections, which had an equally great success at the same period, seem to 

 emanate more directly from the homely good sense and native wit of the 

 people, with all their facetious and picturesque qualities. It is not necessary 

 to mention more than three or four of these collections, whi^h, in spite of 



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