By prudence in the distribution of his benevolence, by giving only to good and deserving persons, he procured to himself friends, on whose advice and assistance he might depend, whenever occasion should require it; and by expending only what he could conveniently spare, and laying it out on such things as administered to his comfort, he enjoyed, and therefore had what he expended; but what he left, not being enjoyed by himself, nor going, perhaps, to persons of his choice, or being used in the manner he would have preferred, that portion might be truly said to be lost.

In Vado esse. In Portu navigare.

The ship has escaped the threatened danger and is arrived safely in port. The adage is applied to any one who has overcome some difficulty, with which he had been oppressed, and from which there seemed little chance of his being able to escape.

Toto

Toto Cælo errare.

"To shoot beyond the mark," to be entirely out in our conjecture, or opinion, on any business; to mistake the meaning of any passage in a work, or of what had been said, were typified by the ancients, by this and similar phrases, meaning, You are as far from the right, as the east is from the west.

Turdus ipse sibi malum cacat. "The Thrush when he defiles the bough, Sows for himself the seeds of woe."

Men of over communicative dispositions, who divulge what may by their adversaries be turned to their disadvantage, may be compared to the thrush, who is said to sow, with his excrements, the seeds of the misletoe on which it feeds. From the bark of the misletoe bird-lime is made, with which the thrush, as well as other birds, are not unfrequently taken. The eagle that had been shot, was doubly distressed on discerning that the arrow which inflicted the wound, was winged with a feather of his own.

Sua

Suo jumento malum accersere.

He hath brought this mischief upon himself. "He hath pulled an old house about his ears.' Why would he interfere in a business in which he had no concern? He should have remembered that, "He that meddleth with strife that doth not belong to him, is like one that taketh a mad dog by the ear."

Cornix Scorpium rapuit.

The crow seizing on a scorpion, and thinking he had got a delicate morsel, was stung to death. The adage is applicable to persons, who, meditating mischief to others, find the evil recoil upon themselves with redoubled force.

Irritare Crabones.

"You have brought a nest of hornets about your ears," may be applied to persons who have engaged in dispute with men. of greater rank or power than themselves; or who have undertaken any business beyond their ability to execute, and from which they cannot extricate

tricate themselves without loss. To the same

purport is

Leonem stimulas.

Why awake the lion who may tear you in pieces? and the following

Malum bene conditum ne moveris.

When you have escaped an injury, or when any dispute or contest in which you were engaged is compromised, and settled, do nothing that may revive it, you may not come off a second time so well. "Non destare il can che dorme," the Italians say, do not wake a sleeping dog. And the French,

"N'as tu pas tort, de reveiller le chat qui dort?" were you not wrong to wake the cat that was sleeping? or, "Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte," when sorrow is asleep, do not wake it."

Bonis, vel malis Avibus.

With good or evil omens.

You began the

business under favourable, or unfavourable auspices, or under a fortunate or unfortunate star. The Greeks and Romans frequently

formed

formed their opinion of the success of any enterprize in which they were about to engage, from the flight, or from the chattering, or singing of birds. The Augur, whose office it was to expound to the people the meaning of the omens, is supposed to have derived the name, or title of the office, from avis garritus, the chattering of birds. Our countryman, Churchill, has ridiculed this superstition with much humour.

" Among the Romans not a bird,
Without a prophecy was heard;
Fortunes of empires ofttimes hung
On the magician magpye's tongue,
And every crow was to the state,
A sure interpreter of fate.
Prophets embodied in a college,

(Time out of mind your seats of knowledge,)

Infallible accounts would keep,

When it was best to watch or sleep,

To eat, or drink, to go, or stay,
And when to fight, or run away,
When matters were for action ripe,
By looking at a double tripe;
When emperors would live or die,

They in an asses skull could spy;

When generals would their stations keep,

Orturn their backs in hearts of sheep."-THE GHOST.

Some