Blair Collection > Collection of Gaelic proverbs, and familiar phrases

C v. 3
tering with the gaudy ornaments of the courte-
zan, but modeftly arrayed in the fbber garb of
mild philofophy. By thofe means they cafily
funk into the heart, and remained fixed in the.
memory. Of this the fayings of the ieven cele-
brated. Wife Men of Greece, inferibed in the
Temple of Apollo at Delphi, aiford us a finking
inftance ; than each of which it would be hard to
find any thing more fimpie, more folic!, and more
fenfible. They have, molt evidently, that cha-
racter which Horace points out as the highett
proof of merit,
Utjibi quifquis
Speret id§m ; fudet mult 'um , multumque labor ci
Aujus idem.
The Simple ones may perhaps defpife them
for the unadorned plainnefs of the expreffion,
but the Wist will ponder them in their hearts,
and grow wifer by the inftruction they convey.
In effect, many large and elaborate Treatifes are
employed only in lengthening out, or confirming
the moral, or prudential precepts, the fubflance
of which is given us in thefe fhort texts.
In the prefent collection are feveral fayings
that alludeto circumftances not generally known ;
but as they frequently occur in common dif-
courfe, it feemed proper that they mould be in-
ferted, and the reader is led to their meaning by
/hort notes. But many of thefe Proverbs are
the leifons that, many ages ago, were given to the
people by the Druids, who, as we are taught by
Diogenes taertius, had made confiderable advan-
ces