The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought by Alexander F. Chamberlain (read full novel txt) 📖

the child is always the work of the mother.—_Napoleon_.

53. The good mother says not “Will you?” but gives.—Italian.

54. The mother’s heart is always with her children.

55. The mother’s breath is aye sweet.—_Scotch_.

56. The mother knows best if the child be like the father.

57. The mother makes the house or mars it.

58. The nurse’s bread is better than the mother’s cake. —_Frisian_.

59. The prayer of the mother fetches her child out of the bottom of the sea.—_Russian_.

60. The watchful mother tarries nigh, Though sleep has closed her infant’s eye.—_Keble_.

61. There is nothing more charming to see than a mother with her child in her arms, and there is nothing more venerable than a mother among a number of her children.—_Goethe_.

62. Though a mother be a wolf, she does not eat her cub’s flesh.—_Afghan_.

63. Timidi mater non flet. [The coward’s mother need not weep.]—Latin.

64. To a child in confinement its mother’s knee is a binding-post. —Hitopadesa.

65. Unhappy is the man for whom his own mother has not made all mothers venerable.—_Jean Paul_.

66. Unless the child cries even the mother will not give it suck.—_Telugu_.

67. Wer ein saugendes Kind hat, der hat eine singende Frau. [Whoever has a suckling child, has a singing wife.]—German.

68. Wer dem Kinde die Nase wischt, kusst der Mutter den Backen. [Whoever wipes a child’s nose kisses the mother’s cheek.]—German.

69. What a mother sees coils itself up, but does not come out [i.e. the faults of her child].-_Angolese_ (Africa).

70. You desire, O woman, to be loved ardently and forever until death; be the mothers of your children.—_Jean Paul_.

71. Zu solchen Kindern gehort eine solche Mutter. [To such children belongs such a mother.]—German.

 

CHAPTER XXX.

 

PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., ABOUT FATHER AND CHILD.

1. An dem Kind kennt man den Vater wohl. [The father is known from the child.]—German.

2. Bone does not let go flesh, nor father son.—_Angolese_.

3. Bose Kinder machen den Vater fromm. [Bad children make the father good.]—German.

4. Chi non ha figluoli non sa qualche cosa sia amore. [Who has not children knows not what love is.]—Italian.

5. Child’s pig, but father’s bacon.

6. Ein Vater ernahrt ehei zehn Kinder, denn zehn Kinder einen Vater. [One father can better nourish ten children, than ten children one father.]—German.

7. Fathers alone a father’s heart can know.—Young.

8.Fathers first enter bonds to Nature’s ends, And are her sureties ere they are a friend’s. —_George Herbert_.

9.Fathers that wear rags Do make their children blind; But fathers that wear bags Do make their children kind. —_Shakespeare_ (King Lear, ii. 4).

10.Fathers their children and themselves abuse, That wealth a husband for their daughters choose. —_Shirley_.

11. Happy is he that is happy in his children.

12. Happy is the child whose father went to the devil.

13. Haur nizar-galeac aitari bizzarra thira. [The child that will cry, pulls at its father’s beard.]—Basque.

14. He has of [i.e. is like] his father.—_Russian_.

15. He is a chip of the old block.

16. He is cut out of his father’s eyes [i.e. very like his father].—_Frisian_.

17. He is the son of his father.

18. He is a wise child that knows his own father.

19. He that can discriminate is the father of his father.—_Veda_.

20. He that hath wife and children wants not business.

21. He that marries a widow and three children marries four thieves.—_Spanish_.

22. He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.—_Bacon_.

23. He was scant o’ news that told that his father was hanged. —_Scotch_.

24. He who hath but one hog makes him fat; he who hath but one son makes him a fool.—Italian.

25. It is a wise father that knows his own child.—_Shakespeare_ (Merch. of Venice, ii. 2).

26. Like father, like son.—_Arabic_.

27. Man sieht dem Kind an, was er fur einen Vater hat. [By the child one sees what sort of man his father is.]—German.

28. Many a father might say … “I put in gold into the furnace, and there came out this calf.”—_Spurgeon_.

29. Many a good father has a bad son.

30. On est toujours le fils de quelqu’un. Cela console. [One is always the son of somebody. That is a consolation.]—_French_.

31. Patris est filius. [He is the son of his father.]—Latin.

32. Such a father, such a son.—_Spanish_.

33. Tel pere, tel fils. [Like father, like son.]—_French_.

34. The child is the father of the man.—_Wordsworth_.

35. The child has a red tongue like its father.

36. The Devil’s child, the Devil’s luck.

37. The father can no more destroy his son than the cloud can extinguish by water the lightning which precedes from itself.—Raghuvansa.

38. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.—Bible.

39. The glory of children are their fathers.—Bible.

40. The gods do not avenge on the son the misdeeds of the father. Each, good or bad, reaps the just reward of his own actions. The blessing of the parents, not their curse, is inherited.—_Goethe_.

41. The ungrateful son is a wart on his father’s face; to leave it is a blemish, to cut it a pain.—_Afghan_.

42. The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity.—_Jean Paul_.

43. To a father, who is growing old, there is nothing dearer than a daughter.—_Euripides_.

44. To a father, when his child dies, the future dies; to a child, when his parents die, the past dies.—_Auerbach_.

45. Vinegar the son of wine [i.e. an unpopular son of a popular father].—Talmud.

46. Whoso wishes to live without trouble, let him keep from step-children and winter-hogs.—_Low German_.

 

CHAPTER XXXI.

 

PROVERBS, SAYINGS, ETC., ABOUT CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, AND AGE.

1. A’ are guid lasses, but where do a’ the ill wives come frae? —_Scotch_.

2. Age does not make us childish, as people say; it only finds us still true children.—_Goethe_.

3. Aliud legunt pueri, aliud viri, aliud senes. [Children read one way, men another, old men another.]—_Terence_.

4. A man at five may be a fool at fifteen.

5. A man at sixteen will prove a child at sixty.

6. An old knave is no babe.

7. A smiling boy seldom proves a good servant.

8. Auld folk are twice bairns.—_Scotch_.

9. Aus gescheidenen Kindern werden Gecken. [From clever children come fools.]—German.

10. Aus Kindern werden Leute, aus Jungfern werden Bräute. [From children come grown-up people, from maidens come brides.] —German.

11. Better bairns greet [i.e. weep] than bearded men. —_Scotch_.

12. Childhood and youth see all the world in persons. —_Emerson_.

13. Childhood often holds a truth in its feeble fingers, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain, and which it is the pride of utmost age to recover.—_Ruskin_.

14. Childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.—_Milton_.

15. Der Jüngling kämpft, damit der Greis geniesse. [The youth fights, in order that the old man may enjoy.]—_Goethe_.

16. Een diamant van een dochter wordt een glas van eene vrouw. [A diamond of a daughter becomes a glass of a wife.]—_Dutch_.

17. Eident [i.e. diligent] youth makes easy age.—_Scotch_.

 

18.

Ewig jung zu bleiben Ist, wie Diehter schreiben, Höchstes Lebensgut; Willst du es erwerben, Musst du frühe sterben. [To remain ever-young Is, as poets write, The highest good of life; If thou wouldst acquire it, Thou must die young.]—_Rückert_.

19. Fanciulli piccioli, dolor di testa; fanciulli grandi dolor di cuore. [Little children bring head-ache, big children, heart-ache.] —Italian.

20. Giovine santo, diavolo vecchio. [Young saint, old devil.] —Italian.

21. Hang a thief when he’s young, and he’ll no steal when he’s auld.—_Scotch_.

22. Happy child! the cradle is still to thee an infinite space; once grown into a man, and the boundless world will be too small to thee.—_Schiller_.

23. He cometh to you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner.—_Sir Philip Sidney_.

24. He who mocks the infant’s faith Shall be mocked in age and death.—_Blake_.

25. How little is the promise of the child fulfilled in the man! —_Ovid_.

26. If you lie upon roses when young, you will lie upon thorns when old.

 

27.

Ihr Kinder, lernet jetzt genug, Ihr lernt nichts mehr in alten Zeiten. [Ye children, learn enough now; When time has passed, you will learn nothing more.]—_Pfeffel_.

28. In childhood a linen rag buys friendship.—_Angolese_.

29. In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in manhood just, and in old age prudent.—_Socrates_.

30. In the opening bud you see the youthful thorns.—Talmud.

31. In youth one has tears without grief; in age, grief without tears.—_Jean Paul._

32. Invention is the talent of youth, and judgment of age. —_Swift._

33. It’s no child’s play, when an old woman dances.—_Low German._

34. Jong rijs is te buigen, maar geen oude boomen. [A young twig can be bent, but not old trees.]—_Dutch._

35. Jonge lui, domme lui; oude lui, koude lui. [Young folk, silly folk; old folk, cold folk.]—_Dutch._

36. Junge Faullenzer, alte Bettler. [Young idlers, old beggars.] —German.

37. Just at the age ‘twixt boy and youth When thought is speech, and speech is truth.—_Scott._

38. La jeunesse devrait etre une caisse d’épargne. [Youth ought to be a savings-bank.]—_Mme. Svetchin._

39. Learn young, learn fair; Learn auld, learn mair.—_Scotch._

40. Let the young people mind what the old people say, And where there is danger, keep out of the way.

41. Levity is artlessness in a child, a shameful fault in men, and a terrible folly in old age.—_La Rochefoucauld._

42. Maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.—_Shakespeare_ (As You Like It, iv. 1).

43. Man schont die Alten, wie man die Kinder schont. [We spare old people, as we spare children.]—_Goethe._

44. Man mut de kinner bugen, so lange se junk sunt. [Children must be bent while they are young.]—_Frisian._

45. Man’s second childhood begins when a woman gets hold of him.—_Barrie._

46. My son’s my son till he hath got him a wife, But my daughter’s my daughter all the days of her life.

47. Nicht die Kinder bloss speist man mit Mãrchen ab. [Not children alone are put off with tales.]—_Leasing._

48. Old head and young hand.

49. Old heads will not suit young shoulders.

50. Old men are twice children.—_Greek_.

51. Once a man and twice a child.

52. Se il giovane sapesse, se il vecchio potesse, c’ non c’ è cosa che non si facesse. [If the youth but knew, if the old man but could, there is nothing which would not be done.]—Italian.

53. Study is the bane of boyhood, the element of youth, the indulgence of manhood, and the restorative of age.—_Landor_.

54. The household is the home of the man as well as of the child.—_Emerson_.

55. The man whom grown-up people love, children love still more.—_Jean Paul_.

56. There are in man, in the beginning, and at the end, two blank book-binder’s leaves,—childhood and age.—_Jean Paul_.

57. We are children for the second time at twenty-one, and again when we are gray and put all our burden on the Lord.—_Barrie_.

58. We bend the tree when it is young.—_Bulgarian_.

59. When bairns are young they gar their parents’ heads ache; when they are auld they make their hearts break.—_Scotch_.

60. When children, we are sensualists, when in love, idealists. —_Goethe_.

61. Wie die Alten sungen, so zwitschern auch die Jungen. [As the old birds sing, the young ones twitter.]—German.

62. Wir sind auch Kinder gewesen. [We too