Notes
*
"The Art of Worldly Wisdom", by Balthasar Gracian, tr. by Joseph Jacobs, [1892],
p. 181 p. 182 p. 183
Notes
Orig. refers to the Spanish original, generally from the Barcelona edition of 1734, though I have occasionally referred to the Madrid edition of 1653, and at times used the text of the "Biblioteca de autores epaoles". This may have occasioned some inconsistencies, especially with regard to accentuation. Schop. refers to Schopenhauer's translation; I have used Grisebach's edition in the Reclam series. M.G.D. is prefixed to quotations from Sir M. Grant Duff's renderings in Fort. Rev., March 1877; Eng. I. and II. refer to the English translations of 1694 and Savage's of 1902 respectively.
Page
Max.
1
ii
"character and intellect"--Orig. "Genio y ingenio"; Schop. "Herz und Kopf"; Eng. I. "Wit and a Genius." The first section of El Discreto has the same title.
"two poles"--Orig. "los dos exes del lucimiento de prendas"; M.G.D. "The two axes of the brilliance of our accomplishments."
2
iii
"when you explain"; cf. ccliii.
"the Divine way"; cf. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing," Prov. xxv. 2.
p. 184
3
v
"Not he that adorns"--Orig. "No hace el nmen el que lo dora sino el que lo adora"; Schop. "Den Gtzen macht nicht der Vergolder sondern der Anbeter."
"golden platter"--Orig. "del oro al lodo"; lit. from the gold to the mire.
vi
"A Man"; from "El Discreto".
5
ix
"strata"--so Schop. "Schichten"; Orig. "venas donde pasa."
7
xiii
"Second Thoughts"--Orig. "intencion segunda." The expression and idea is derived from scholastic logic. Terms of second intention, "i.e." logical technical terms, are doubly abstract, being abstractions of terms of first intention.
"warfare against malice"--Orig. "milicia... contra la malicia."
8
xiv
"accident"--Orig. "circumstancia"; again a scholastic term referring to the modes of real being.
9
\"joy in life"; cf. Emerson: "Beautiful behaviour is the finest of the fine arts."
xv
"make use of the wise"--"Make friends of the wise," said the Seven Sages, "ap". Stobaeus, "Flor". iii. 80.
\"great thing to know"--Orig. "Ay mucho que saber y es poco el vivir"; Schop. takes it as a variant of Hippocrates' maxim, "Art is long," etc., and renders "Das Wissen ist lang, das Leben kurz." See, however, ccxlvii.
10
xvi
"Knowledge without sense"--"Ciencia sin seso locura doble"; cf. Span. prov. "Ciencia es Locura si buen seso no la cura."
xvii
"impulse"--Orig. "intencion," a reference to xiii, where see Note.
p. 185
11
xviii
"Application and Ability". Galton, "Hereditary Genius", p. 38, adds zeal or energy.
xix
"Arouse", etc.; from "El Heroe", 16.
12
xx
"The sage has one advantage". A favourite maxim of Schopenhauer, quoted by him in his "Wille in d. Natur", 1836, p. 34, and written on his own copy of "Die Welt als Wille", obviously applying it to himself. (See Grisebach, "Edita and Inedita", p. 104.)
14
xxiii
"soon finds out"--Orig. "para luego y aun repara."
15
xxv
"Know how", etc.--Orig. "Been entendedor"; from "El Discreto". Eng. I. "A good Pryer"; Eng. II. "A good Understanding." The reference is to the Span. prov. "A buen entendedor pocas palabras, Don Quixote", ii. cc. 37, 60. Sly uses the later half in "Taming of Shrew" Induction, "Therefore "pocas palabras", let the world slide, sessa!"
16
xxvii
"giants are real dwarfs"; cf. Bacon's apophthegm, "Nature did never put her jewels in garrets."
"try the brawn". A slight embellishment. Orig. "para exercitar antes los braos que los ingenios."
xxviii
"great and wise"--Phocion; ap. Plutarch, "Reg. et Imp. Apophthegm". Phocion, 4.
17
\"chameleons of popularity"; cf. ccxcv.
xxix
"Many praise it"; cf. "Probitas laudatur et alget," Juv. "Sat". i. 74.
18
xxxi
"Select the Lucky". Quoted by Addison in Spectator, No. 293. The Rothschilds are said to act on this principle in their business relations.
"Never open"; cf. ccliv.
19
\"win the odd trick"--Orig. merely "hallan con la ventura."
p. 186
19
xxxii
"Those make friends"; cf. xl, cxi.
xxxiii
"One is not obliged"; cf. cclx.
20
xxxv
"All fools"; cf. Stevenson, Kidnapped, c. xiv. as: "I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of them; and I believe they both got paid in the end; but the fools first."
21
xxxvi
f"avours the bold"; cf. Span. prov. "Al hombre osado la Fortuna lada la mano."
22
xxxvii
"Keep a Store of Sarcasms", etc.--Eng. I. and II. "To guess at the meaning of the little Hints that are given us by the bye, and to know how to make the best of them."
24
xl
From "El Heroe", 12.
25
xliii
From "El Discreto", "Hombre juizio."
26
xliv
"for mystery and for use"--Orig. "por lo culto y por lo ventojoso."
28
xlvii
"One affair"--Orig. has a play upon "empeo" and "despeo," which I have tried to reproduce.
29
xlviii
"no use boring"--Orig. "No ay en estos donde parar todo para."
xlix
From "El Discreto", c. xviii.
30
li
"Know how", etc.; from "El Discreto", c. ix.
31
liii
From "El Discreto," c. xx.
"Festina lente"--Orig. "Correr espacio." This is not given in Dielitz' elaborate work on "Wahl-und Denksprche", Gorlitz, 1884, so I suspect it was Gracian's version of Augustus' motto, , generally translated "Festina lente".
32
lv
"Wait"; from "El Discreto", c. iii, mainly from the end. It is called an "Allegoria".
p. 187
32
lv
"He spake". Charles V. according to "El Discreto", I.e. Schop. attributes the saying to Philip Ii.
33
lvi
"Have Presence of Mind"; from "El Discreto", c. xiv.
"natures of Antiperistasis". The energy aroused by opposition. Johnson gives example from Cowley (M.G.D.) It occurs also in Bacon ("Colours", vii.) and Browne ("Rel. Med." II. x.) Macaulay also uses it in his essay on Bacon (Oxford Diet.)
"work best in an emergency". So Galton, "Hereditary Genius", p. 48, who speaks of men "formed to shine under exceptional circumstances," as in the Indian Mutiny.
lvii
"Quickly done"; cf. Herbert, "Jacula Prudentum", "Good and quickly seldom meet."
34
lix
"Finish off well"; from "El Discreto", c. xi.
"think of the finish"; cf. lxvi.
"Few in life"--Orig. "Que son raros los deseados."
35
\"warmly as"--Orig. "lo que se muesta de cumplida con los que vienen de descortes con los que van." M.G.D. "Seldom does fortune conduct a parting guest to the threshold."
lx
"by the helm of state". So Schop. "Solche Leute verdienen am Staatsruder zu stehen, sei es zur Lenkung oder zum Rath"; Orig. "Merecen estos la asistencia al gobernarle para exercicio para consejo."
lxi
"To Excel"; from "El Heroe", p. vi.
36
lxii
"Use good Instruments". Chap. iii. of Sir H. Taylor's "The Statesman" is entitled "A Statesman's most pregnant Function lies in the Choice and Use of Instruments."
p. 188
36
lxii
"all the blame"; cf. Sir A. Helps's "Essays in Intervals of Business" (Macmillan, 1890), p. 44: "You have to choose persons for whose faults you are to be punished, to whom you are to be the whipping boy."
lxiii
"To be the First"; from "El Heroe", primor vii.
37
lxv
"Elevated Taste"; from "El Heroe", primor v. Eng. II. "The Fine Taste," and so quoted by Addison, Spectator, No. 40n.
38
lxvi
"See that Things end well"; cf. lix.
"A good end gilds". Here the Jesuit speaks.
39
lxvii
"Prefer Callings "en Evidence"; from "El Heroe", primor viii.
"kings of Aragon". Gracian was himself an Aragonese.
40
lxix
"Do not give way", etc.; from "El Discreto", c. xiii.
45
lxxi
"Do not Vacillate"; from "El Discreto", c. vi.
45
lxxvi
"Do not always be Jesting"; from "El Discreto", c. ix.
"A continual jest"--Orig. "No ay mayor desayre que el continuo donayre."
lxxvii
"Be all Things to all Men". A touch of Gracian's training as Jesuit.
46
\"universal genius"--Orig. "varon universal de ingenio en noticias y de genio en gustos" cf. ii.
lxxix
"Join in the fun"; cf. cclxxv.
48
lxxxi
mediocrity that's new; cf. cclxix.
"Change the scene"; cf. cxcviii.
lxxxii
"A sage"--Aristotle.
49
lxxxiii
"leave your cloak"--an image taken from the bull-fight, when the matador allows the bull to rush at his cloak held sideways. Gracian uses the same image in El Criticon, i. 3.
lxxxiv "blade which cuts"; cf. ccxxiv.
p. 189
50
lxxxv
"Manille". Schop. suggests that this is the Manillio of Hombre, the second best trump (cf. Pope, "Rape of Lock", iii. 51). But there is a game mentioned by Littr "s.v.", which is obviously the one referred to by Gracian. In this the nine of diamonds, called Manille, can be made any value the player wishes. Manille thus means a combination of a jack of all Trades and a universal drudge.
51
lxxxvii
"Culture and Elegance"; from "El Discreto", c. xvii.
53
xc
"The Secret"; cf. Fuller, "He lives long who lives well."
"have not the will". So, it is said, negroes and savages die in circumstances where Europeans keep alive simply because they have "the will to live, the competence to be."
54
xcii
"an ounce of wisdom"--Orig. "Mas vale un grano de cordura que arrobas de sutileza."
55
xciv
"Keep the extent", etc.; from "El Heroe", i.
xcv
"single cast"; cf. clxxxv.
xcvi
"The highest Discretion"--Orig. "la gran sinderesis."
56
xcviii
"Write your Intentions in Cypher"; from "El Heroe", ii.
57
\"adopt the policy"--Orig. "A linces de discurso gibias de interioridad," I have omitted the lynxes, who have little to do with cuttle-fish (pl. of Sp. "jibia").
xcix
"Things pass", etc. A favourite expression of Gracian's; cf. cxxx, cxlvi; cf. also the German proverb, "Was scheint, das gilt."
58
ci
"What one pursues"--Orig. "Lo que este sigue, el otro persigue."
59
cii
"find their proper place"--Orig. "No caben en si porque no cabe en ellos la suerte."
p. 190
60
cv
"gains by courtesy"--Orig. "gana por lo corts lo que pierde por lo corta."
63
cix
"prison"--Orig. "galera," a sort of Bridewell.
64
cxi
"way to gain friendly feelings"; cf. xxxii, xl.
65
cxii
"Service Road"--Orig. "Es grande el rodeo de solos los meritos sino se ayudan del favor."
69
cxix
to be esteemed--Orig. "el que quiere hacer casa hace caso."
71
cxxii
"Distinction"; from "El Discreto", c. ii.
73
cxxvi
"wise try to hide"; cf. Prov. xii. 16 "A fool's vexation is speedily known, but the prudent man concealeth shame."
"live chastely"--Orig. "Si no es uno casto, sea cauto"; Schop. turns neatly into Latin, "caute nisi caste".
74
\"learn to forget"; cf. cclxii.
cxxvii
"Grace in Everything"; from "El Heroe", c. xiii.
75
cxxix
"Never complain". "I make it a point never to complain," Mr. Disraeli once said in the House; cf. cxlv.
76
cxxx
"Even the Right"; cf. xcix.
"things are judged by their rackets"--Orig. merely "juzganse las cosas por fuera."
77
cxxxiii
"Better Mad", etc.; cf. "In action wisdom goes by majorities," from "The Pilgrim's Scrip" in "Richard Feverel".
78
\"the aphorism"; from Aristotle, "Pol." i. s; also Heraclitus; cf. Grisebach, Schopenhauer's "Inedita", 78. Also Bacon, "Essays".
80
cxxxvii
"resembles the brute beast". See preceding note.
88
cxlvii
"the sage said"--Socrates.
90
cli
"The pillow is a silent"; quoted by Morley, "Aphorisms".
p. 191
90
clii
"The more he does"--Orig. "Tanto por mas, quanta por menos." Schop. takes it differently: "Sei es dadurch lass er ber uns oder class er unter uns stehe."
"the cunning Fabula"--Martial, "Epigr." viii. 79.
91
cliii
"Beware of entering". The great Jewish teacher Hillel gave braver advice: "'Where there is no man, dare to be a man" ("Ethics of the Fathers").
93
clv
"synteresis"; defined in Doctor and Student, Dial. I. ch. xiv., as: "The natural power of the soul set in the highest part ther, moving it and stirring it to good and abhorring evil"; cf. Milton, "Common-place Book", ed. Horwood, 79; and cf. Saunder, transl. of Schopenhauer, "Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit", c. v. 34.
\"wise on horseback"; cf. "Nadie es cuerdo caballo," Span. prov. quoted by Schop.
clvi
"Only after", etc.--Orig. "Que lo han de ser examen de la discretion y prueba de la fortuna, graduados no solo de la voluntad sino del entendimiento."
"Intelligence brings friends"; cf. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll: "It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friends ready made at the hands of opportunity."
95
clviii
"Being in general"; the scholastic maxim running "Quodlibet ens est unum, verum, bonum."
clix
"to put up with things"; , the great Epicurean maxim.
96
clx
"Be careful in Speaking"; cf. Prov. xxix. 20. "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words there is more hope of a fool than of him."
p. 192
97
clxii
"enough to despise them"; cf. ccv.
"who speaks well". "It's poor foolishness," says Adam Bede, "to run down your enemies", cf. Goethe.
98
clxiv
"Throw Straws"--Orig. "Echar al ayre algunas cosas" merely refers to feigned blows; cf. xiii.
99
clxv
"poisoned arrows"; rather an embellishment on the orig., which has merely "pero no mala (guerra)."
100
clxvi
"polite deceit"; cf. cxci.
104
clxxiii
"Motes offend them"--Orig. "Ofendenla las motas que no son menester y notas."
"the Amant is half adamant". This seems the only way of retaining the "conceit" and jingle of the orig.: "La condition del Amante tiene la mitad de diamante en el durar y en el resistir."
105
clxxv
"Only Truth--profit"; omitted by Schop.
109
clxxxii
"A Grain of Boldness"; cf. the opening of Bacon's Essay "Of Boldnesse," and Mrs. Poyser's aphorism, "It's them as take advantage that get advantage in this world, I think."
112
clxxxvii
"it is the privilege"; cf. cclxxxvi.
"Have some one"; cf. Bacon, "Of Envy": "The wiser Sort of Great Persons bring in ever upon the Stage some Body upon whom to derive the Envy that would come upon themselves."
115
cxc
"The unlucky thinks"--Orig. has a play upon the words "suerte" and "muerte."
cxci
"Theirs is the Bank of Elegance". I have no excuse for this. Orig. simply "Hacen precio con la honra."
cxcii
"no greater perversit"y--Orig. "No ay mayor desproposito que tomar lo todo de proposito."
p. 193
116
cxciii
"Be intent"--Orig. "Al intendido un buen entendedor."
"their chestnuts"--Orig. simply "Sacar del fuego el provecho ageno."
117
cxcvi
"ruling Star". There are some grounds for believing that great adventurers, like Napoleon, have a subjective star, hallucinatory of course, which appears to them at moments of great excitement; cf. Gallon, "Human Faculty", 175-176.
119
cxcviii
"native land a stepmother"; cf. "contra" Galton, "Hered. Gen.", 360 "As a rule the very ablest men are strongly disinclined to emigrate," and Prov. xxvii. 8.
120
cc
"Leave Something"; cf. lxxxii, ccxcix.
"The body must respire"--Orig. "Espira el cuerpo y anhela el espiritu."
121
ccii
"Former are feminine"; cf. Span. prov. "Palabras hembras son hechos machos." Howell, "Fam. Letters", quotes the saying as Italian; cf. my edition, p. 270 and "n". Herbert also gives it in his "Jacula Prudentum".
"Eminent deeds endure". Schop. has characteristically expressed his dissent by annotating his own copy of the "Orculo" at this point with a pithy "vale el contrario."
122
cciv
"Attempt easy Tasks as if they were difficult". Approved by Mr. Morley, "Aphorisms".
133
ccxx
"If you cannot", etc. There may be here a reference to Lysander's saying in Plutarch: "If the lion's skin [of Hercules] is not long enough, we must stitch on to it a fox's skin.
p. 194
133
ccxxi
"They are always on the point of some stupidity"--omitted by Schop.
134
\"meet with them easily"--Orig. "Encuentranse con gran facilidad y rompen con infelicidad."
ccxxii
"Reserve is proof"; cf. clxxix.
135
ccxxiii
"more defects"--so Orig. "Que son mas defectos que diferencias."
ccxxiv
"taken by the blade"; cf. lxxxiv.
136
ccxxv
"Know your chief Fault"; cf. xxxiv.
137
ccxxvii
"new casks"; cf. the Span. prov. "A la vasija nueva dura el resabio."
143
ccxxxvii
"share pears"--Orig. "Pensar partir peras y partir piedras." Schop. "Man glaubt Kirschen mit ihnen zu essen, wird aber nur die steine erhalten."
144
ccxxxviii
"communicates his secret"; cf. Span. prov. "A quien dizes poridad esse tu das la liberdad," neither tell secrets nor listen to them--Eng. I. puts it rather neatly: "Tis a maxim for secrets Neither to hear them nor to tell them"; cf. the maxim of the Seven Sages, ap. Stobaeus, Flor. iii. 80: "Tell none a secret."
ccxxxviii
"something wanting"; cf. xxxiv, ccxxv.
145
ccxl
"Speak to each"; cf. Prov. xxvi. 5, "Answer a fool according to his folly."
146
ccxlii
"Everything stops"--Orig. "Todo para en parar." Schop. omits.
149
ccxlvi
"To excuse oneself"--Orig. "El escusarse antes de ocasion es culparse"; cf. Fr. prov. "Qui s'excuse s'accuse."
150
ccli
"Use human Means", etc.; cf. "Human wit ought to be exhausted before we presume to invoke Divine interposition" (B. Disraeli, "Tancred").
p. 195
152
cclii
"berth and burthen"--Orig. "Renuncie el cargo con la carga." The story goes that an old woman met Hadrian with a petition. He repulsed her, saying he had no time. "Then give up your berth," retorted the beldam. Hadrian recognised the justice of the rebuke and decided the petition on the spot.
"slaves of all"; cf. "Men in great Place are thrice servants" (Bacon, Essay "Of Great Place"). There is something like this in "El Criticon", i. 7.
ccliii
"Do not Explain overmuch"; cf. "Let the wise be warned against too great readiness of explanation" (G. Eliot, "Middlemarch").
"do not esteem what they understand"; cf.--
\"Was man nicht weiss, das eben brauchte man,
Und was man weiss kann man nicht brauchen."
Goethe, Faust, Th. I.
153
\"venerate the unknown"; cf. "Omne ignotum pro magnifico."
ccliv
"they never come alone"; cf. Span. prov. "ap". "Don Quixote", i. 28, "Un mal llama otro," and Shakespeare, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions, Hamlet", iv. 5.
\"Do not wake Misfortune"; cf. Span. prov. "Quando la mala Fortuna se duerme, nadie la despierte."
"One slip is a little thing"; cf. Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll".
158
cclxii
"The things we remember best are those better forgotten".--quoted by Mr. Morley in "Aphorisms".
159
cclxiv
"Have no careless Days". D'Artagnan acts on this principle in keeping always on guard over the king during journeys. "Vicomte de Bragelonne", c. xii.
p. 196
160
cclxv
"The Great Captain"--Orig. "El gran Capitan," a reference to Gonsalvo de Cordova (1443-1515), who commanded the Spanish land forces against Chas. VIII. in Italy, and received his title "el gran Capitan" July 1496.
161
cclxvii
"Silken Words". Parysatis, mother of the younger Cyrus, advised one who was about to have an audience with a king to use words wrapped in fine linen; cf. Paley, "Greek Wit", i. No. 152.
\"mouth full of sugar"; cf. "contra" Spurgeon's "John Ploughman's Talk", "Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you down."
cclxviii
"Wise does at once"; cf. Span. prov. "Lo que hace el loco la postre, hace sabio al principio (quoted by Trench, "Proverbs"5, 116).
163
cclxxi
"Let little knowledge"--Orig. "A poco saber camino real."
164
cclxxiii
"If a man laughs always"--Orig. "Conosca al que siempre rie por falto y al que nunca por falso."
166
cclxxvi
"At twenty"; cf. the ages in "Ethics of the Jewish Fathers", ed. C. Taylor, p. 111; L. Lw, "Die Lebensalter", p. 22 and "n".; and Shakespeare in "As You Like It".
cclxxvii
From "El Discreto", c. xii.
168
cclxxix
"comes from cunning"; cf. ccxiii.
169
cclxxxi
"you cannot make a meal"--Orig. "Porque regueldos de aristas no alientan." Schop. omits.
170
cclxxxii
"ridiculous"
"result"--Orig. "Ridiculo parto de los mantes," a reference to Horace's "Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."
p. 197
171
cclxxxv
"Never die"--Schop. adds to his copy "y mucho menos de necedad y ruindad agena."
172
cclxxxvi
"you can do more good"; cf. clxxxvii; cf. "Power to doe good is the true and lawfull end of Aspiring" (Bacon, "Of Great Place").
173
cclxxxviii
"steering by the wind". The derangement of metaphors is mine; orig. has simply "En portarse la ocasion."
174
ccxci
"The care of the wise", etc.--Orig. "Compita la atencion del juyzioso can la detencion del recatado."
176
ccxcv
From "El Discreto", c. xix.
177
ccxcvi
"Noble qualities make noblemen"--Orig. "Las primeras hazen los primeros hombres."
179
ccc
"Three HHH's"--Orig. "Tres eses hazen dichoso, Santo, Sano y Sabio." Schop. "Drei Dinge die in Spanischen mit einem S anfangen machen glcklich --Heiligkeit, Gesundheit, and Weisheit." M.G.D. "Three SSS render a man happy, Sanctity, Soundness of body, and Sageness."
The End
\"Printed in Great Britain by" R. & R. Clark, Limited, \"Edinburgh".
"The Art of Worldly Wisdom", by Balthasar Gracian, tr. by Joseph Jacobs, [1892],
p. 181 p. 182 p. 183
Notes
Orig. refers to the Spanish original, generally from the Barcelona edition of 1734, though I have occasionally referred to the Madrid edition of 1653, and at times used the text of the "Biblioteca de autores epaoles". This may have occasioned some inconsistencies, especially with regard to accentuation. Schop. refers to Schopenhauer's translation; I have used Grisebach's edition in the Reclam series. M.G.D. is prefixed to quotations from Sir M. Grant Duff's renderings in Fort. Rev., March 1877; Eng. I. and II. refer to the English translations of 1694 and Savage's of 1902 respectively.
Page
Max.
1
ii
"character and intellect"--Orig. "Genio y ingenio"; Schop. "Herz und Kopf"; Eng. I. "Wit and a Genius." The first section of El Discreto has the same title.
"two poles"--Orig. "los dos exes del lucimiento de prendas"; M.G.D. "The two axes of the brilliance of our accomplishments."
2
iii
"when you explain"; cf. ccliii.
"the Divine way"; cf. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing," Prov. xxv. 2.
p. 184
3
v
"Not he that adorns"--Orig. "No hace el nmen el que lo dora sino el que lo adora"; Schop. "Den Gtzen macht nicht der Vergolder sondern der Anbeter."
"golden platter"--Orig. "del oro al lodo"; lit. from the gold to the mire.
vi
"A Man"; from "El Discreto".
5
ix
"strata"--so Schop. "Schichten"; Orig. "venas donde pasa."
7
xiii
"Second Thoughts"--Orig. "intencion segunda." The expression and idea is derived from scholastic logic. Terms of second intention, "i.e." logical technical terms, are doubly abstract, being abstractions of terms of first intention.
"warfare against malice"--Orig. "milicia... contra la malicia."
8
xiv
"accident"--Orig. "circumstancia"; again a scholastic term referring to the modes of real being.
9
\"joy in life"; cf. Emerson: "Beautiful behaviour is the finest of the fine arts."
xv
"make use of the wise"--"Make friends of the wise," said the Seven Sages, "ap". Stobaeus, "Flor". iii. 80.
\"great thing to know"--Orig. "Ay mucho que saber y es poco el vivir"; Schop. takes it as a variant of Hippocrates' maxim, "Art is long," etc., and renders "Das Wissen ist lang, das Leben kurz." See, however, ccxlvii.
10
xvi
"Knowledge without sense"--"Ciencia sin seso locura doble"; cf. Span. prov. "Ciencia es Locura si buen seso no la cura."
xvii
"impulse"--Orig. "intencion," a reference to xiii, where see Note.
p. 185
11
xviii
"Application and Ability". Galton, "Hereditary Genius", p. 38, adds zeal or energy.
xix
"Arouse", etc.; from "El Heroe", 16.
12
xx
"The sage has one advantage". A favourite maxim of Schopenhauer, quoted by him in his "Wille in d. Natur", 1836, p. 34, and written on his own copy of "Die Welt als Wille", obviously applying it to himself. (See Grisebach, "Edita and Inedita", p. 104.)
14
xxiii
"soon finds out"--Orig. "para luego y aun repara."
15
xxv
"Know how", etc.--Orig. "Been entendedor"; from "El Discreto". Eng. I. "A good Pryer"; Eng. II. "A good Understanding." The reference is to the Span. prov. "A buen entendedor pocas palabras, Don Quixote", ii. cc. 37, 60. Sly uses the later half in "Taming of Shrew" Induction, "Therefore "pocas palabras", let the world slide, sessa!"
16
xxvii
"giants are real dwarfs"; cf. Bacon's apophthegm, "Nature did never put her jewels in garrets."
"try the brawn". A slight embellishment. Orig. "para exercitar antes los braos que los ingenios."
xxviii
"great and wise"--Phocion; ap. Plutarch, "Reg. et Imp. Apophthegm". Phocion, 4.
17
\"chameleons of popularity"; cf. ccxcv.
xxix
"Many praise it"; cf. "Probitas laudatur et alget," Juv. "Sat". i. 74.
18
xxxi
"Select the Lucky". Quoted by Addison in Spectator, No. 293. The Rothschilds are said to act on this principle in their business relations.
"Never open"; cf. ccliv.
19
\"win the odd trick"--Orig. merely "hallan con la ventura."
p. 186
19
xxxii
"Those make friends"; cf. xl, cxi.
xxxiii
"One is not obliged"; cf. cclx.
20
xxxv
"All fools"; cf. Stevenson, Kidnapped, c. xiv. as: "I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of them; and I believe they both got paid in the end; but the fools first."
21
xxxvi
f"avours the bold"; cf. Span. prov. "Al hombre osado la Fortuna lada la mano."
22
xxxvii
"Keep a Store of Sarcasms", etc.--Eng. I. and II. "To guess at the meaning of the little Hints that are given us by the bye, and to know how to make the best of them."
24
xl
From "El Heroe", 12.
25
xliii
From "El Discreto", "Hombre juizio."
26
xliv
"for mystery and for use"--Orig. "por lo culto y por lo ventojoso."
28
xlvii
"One affair"--Orig. has a play upon "empeo" and "despeo," which I have tried to reproduce.
29
xlviii
"no use boring"--Orig. "No ay en estos donde parar todo para."
xlix
From "El Discreto", c. xviii.
30
li
"Know how", etc.; from "El Discreto", c. ix.
31
liii
From "El Discreto," c. xx.
"Festina lente"--Orig. "Correr espacio." This is not given in Dielitz' elaborate work on "Wahl-und Denksprche", Gorlitz, 1884, so I suspect it was Gracian's version of Augustus' motto, , generally translated "Festina lente".
32
lv
"Wait"; from "El Discreto", c. iii, mainly from the end. It is called an "Allegoria".
p. 187
32
lv
"He spake". Charles V. according to "El Discreto", I.e. Schop. attributes the saying to Philip Ii.
33
lvi
"Have Presence of Mind"; from "El Discreto", c. xiv.
"natures of Antiperistasis". The energy aroused by opposition. Johnson gives example from Cowley (M.G.D.) It occurs also in Bacon ("Colours", vii.) and Browne ("Rel. Med." II. x.) Macaulay also uses it in his essay on Bacon (Oxford Diet.)
"work best in an emergency". So Galton, "Hereditary Genius", p. 48, who speaks of men "formed to shine under exceptional circumstances," as in the Indian Mutiny.
lvii
"Quickly done"; cf. Herbert, "Jacula Prudentum", "Good and quickly seldom meet."
34
lix
"Finish off well"; from "El Discreto", c. xi.
"think of the finish"; cf. lxvi.
"Few in life"--Orig. "Que son raros los deseados."
35
\"warmly as"--Orig. "lo que se muesta de cumplida con los que vienen de descortes con los que van." M.G.D. "Seldom does fortune conduct a parting guest to the threshold."
lx
"by the helm of state". So Schop. "Solche Leute verdienen am Staatsruder zu stehen, sei es zur Lenkung oder zum Rath"; Orig. "Merecen estos la asistencia al gobernarle para exercicio para consejo."
lxi
"To Excel"; from "El Heroe", p. vi.
36
lxii
"Use good Instruments". Chap. iii. of Sir H. Taylor's "The Statesman" is entitled "A Statesman's most pregnant Function lies in the Choice and Use of Instruments."
p. 188
36
lxii
"all the blame"; cf. Sir A. Helps's "Essays in Intervals of Business" (Macmillan, 1890), p. 44: "You have to choose persons for whose faults you are to be punished, to whom you are to be the whipping boy."
lxiii
"To be the First"; from "El Heroe", primor vii.
37
lxv
"Elevated Taste"; from "El Heroe", primor v. Eng. II. "The Fine Taste," and so quoted by Addison, Spectator, No. 40n.
38
lxvi
"See that Things end well"; cf. lix.
"A good end gilds". Here the Jesuit speaks.
39
lxvii
"Prefer Callings "en Evidence"; from "El Heroe", primor viii.
"kings of Aragon". Gracian was himself an Aragonese.
40
lxix
"Do not give way", etc.; from "El Discreto", c. xiii.
45
lxxi
"Do not Vacillate"; from "El Discreto", c. vi.
45
lxxvi
"Do not always be Jesting"; from "El Discreto", c. ix.
"A continual jest"--Orig. "No ay mayor desayre que el continuo donayre."
lxxvii
"Be all Things to all Men". A touch of Gracian's training as Jesuit.
46
\"universal genius"--Orig. "varon universal de ingenio en noticias y de genio en gustos" cf. ii.
lxxix
"Join in the fun"; cf. cclxxv.
48
lxxxi
mediocrity that's new; cf. cclxix.
"Change the scene"; cf. cxcviii.
lxxxii
"A sage"--Aristotle.
49
lxxxiii
"leave your cloak"--an image taken from the bull-fight, when the matador allows the bull to rush at his cloak held sideways. Gracian uses the same image in El Criticon, i. 3.
lxxxiv "blade which cuts"; cf. ccxxiv.
p. 189
50
lxxxv
"Manille". Schop. suggests that this is the Manillio of Hombre, the second best trump (cf. Pope, "Rape of Lock", iii. 51). But there is a game mentioned by Littr "s.v.", which is obviously the one referred to by Gracian. In this the nine of diamonds, called Manille, can be made any value the player wishes. Manille thus means a combination of a jack of all Trades and a universal drudge.
51
lxxxvii
"Culture and Elegance"; from "El Discreto", c. xvii.
53
xc
"The Secret"; cf. Fuller, "He lives long who lives well."
"have not the will". So, it is said, negroes and savages die in circumstances where Europeans keep alive simply because they have "the will to live, the competence to be."
54
xcii
"an ounce of wisdom"--Orig. "Mas vale un grano de cordura que arrobas de sutileza."
55
xciv
"Keep the extent", etc.; from "El Heroe", i.
xcv
"single cast"; cf. clxxxv.
xcvi
"The highest Discretion"--Orig. "la gran sinderesis."
56
xcviii
"Write your Intentions in Cypher"; from "El Heroe", ii.
57
\"adopt the policy"--Orig. "A linces de discurso gibias de interioridad," I have omitted the lynxes, who have little to do with cuttle-fish (pl. of Sp. "jibia").
xcix
"Things pass", etc. A favourite expression of Gracian's; cf. cxxx, cxlvi; cf. also the German proverb, "Was scheint, das gilt."
58
ci
"What one pursues"--Orig. "Lo que este sigue, el otro persigue."
59
cii
"find their proper place"--Orig. "No caben en si porque no cabe en ellos la suerte."
p. 190
60
cv
"gains by courtesy"--Orig. "gana por lo corts lo que pierde por lo corta."
63
cix
"prison"--Orig. "galera," a sort of Bridewell.
64
cxi
"way to gain friendly feelings"; cf. xxxii, xl.
65
cxii
"Service Road"--Orig. "Es grande el rodeo de solos los meritos sino se ayudan del favor."
69
cxix
to be esteemed--Orig. "el que quiere hacer casa hace caso."
71
cxxii
"Distinction"; from "El Discreto", c. ii.
73
cxxvi
"wise try to hide"; cf. Prov. xii. 16 "A fool's vexation is speedily known, but the prudent man concealeth shame."
"live chastely"--Orig. "Si no es uno casto, sea cauto"; Schop. turns neatly into Latin, "caute nisi caste".
74
\"learn to forget"; cf. cclxii.
cxxvii
"Grace in Everything"; from "El Heroe", c. xiii.
75
cxxix
"Never complain". "I make it a point never to complain," Mr. Disraeli once said in the House; cf. cxlv.
76
cxxx
"Even the Right"; cf. xcix.
"things are judged by their rackets"--Orig. merely "juzganse las cosas por fuera."
77
cxxxiii
"Better Mad", etc.; cf. "In action wisdom goes by majorities," from "The Pilgrim's Scrip" in "Richard Feverel".
78
\"the aphorism"; from Aristotle, "Pol." i. s; also Heraclitus; cf. Grisebach, Schopenhauer's "Inedita", 78. Also Bacon, "Essays".
80
cxxxvii
"resembles the brute beast". See preceding note.
88
cxlvii
"the sage said"--Socrates.
90
cli
"The pillow is a silent"; quoted by Morley, "Aphorisms".
p. 191
90
clii
"The more he does"--Orig. "Tanto por mas, quanta por menos." Schop. takes it differently: "Sei es dadurch lass er ber uns oder class er unter uns stehe."
"the cunning Fabula"--Martial, "Epigr." viii. 79.
91
cliii
"Beware of entering". The great Jewish teacher Hillel gave braver advice: "'Where there is no man, dare to be a man" ("Ethics of the Fathers").
93
clv
"synteresis"; defined in Doctor and Student, Dial. I. ch. xiv., as: "The natural power of the soul set in the highest part ther, moving it and stirring it to good and abhorring evil"; cf. Milton, "Common-place Book", ed. Horwood, 79; and cf. Saunder, transl. of Schopenhauer, "Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit", c. v. 34.
\"wise on horseback"; cf. "Nadie es cuerdo caballo," Span. prov. quoted by Schop.
clvi
"Only after", etc.--Orig. "Que lo han de ser examen de la discretion y prueba de la fortuna, graduados no solo de la voluntad sino del entendimiento."
"Intelligence brings friends"; cf. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll: "It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friends ready made at the hands of opportunity."
95
clviii
"Being in general"; the scholastic maxim running "Quodlibet ens est unum, verum, bonum."
clix
"to put up with things"; , the great Epicurean maxim.
96
clx
"Be careful in Speaking"; cf. Prov. xxix. 20. "Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words there is more hope of a fool than of him."
p. 192
97
clxii
"enough to despise them"; cf. ccv.
"who speaks well". "It's poor foolishness," says Adam Bede, "to run down your enemies", cf. Goethe.
98
clxiv
"Throw Straws"--Orig. "Echar al ayre algunas cosas" merely refers to feigned blows; cf. xiii.
99
clxv
"poisoned arrows"; rather an embellishment on the orig., which has merely "pero no mala (guerra)."
100
clxvi
"polite deceit"; cf. cxci.
104
clxxiii
"Motes offend them"--Orig. "Ofendenla las motas que no son menester y notas."
"the Amant is half adamant". This seems the only way of retaining the "conceit" and jingle of the orig.: "La condition del Amante tiene la mitad de diamante en el durar y en el resistir."
105
clxxv
"Only Truth--profit"; omitted by Schop.
109
clxxxii
"A Grain of Boldness"; cf. the opening of Bacon's Essay "Of Boldnesse," and Mrs. Poyser's aphorism, "It's them as take advantage that get advantage in this world, I think."
112
clxxxvii
"it is the privilege"; cf. cclxxxvi.
"Have some one"; cf. Bacon, "Of Envy": "The wiser Sort of Great Persons bring in ever upon the Stage some Body upon whom to derive the Envy that would come upon themselves."
115
cxc
"The unlucky thinks"--Orig. has a play upon the words "suerte" and "muerte."
cxci
"Theirs is the Bank of Elegance". I have no excuse for this. Orig. simply "Hacen precio con la honra."
cxcii
"no greater perversit"y--Orig. "No ay mayor desproposito que tomar lo todo de proposito."
p. 193
116
cxciii
"Be intent"--Orig. "Al intendido un buen entendedor."
"their chestnuts"--Orig. simply "Sacar del fuego el provecho ageno."
117
cxcvi
"ruling Star". There are some grounds for believing that great adventurers, like Napoleon, have a subjective star, hallucinatory of course, which appears to them at moments of great excitement; cf. Gallon, "Human Faculty", 175-176.
119
cxcviii
"native land a stepmother"; cf. "contra" Galton, "Hered. Gen.", 360 "As a rule the very ablest men are strongly disinclined to emigrate," and Prov. xxvii. 8.
120
cc
"Leave Something"; cf. lxxxii, ccxcix.
"The body must respire"--Orig. "Espira el cuerpo y anhela el espiritu."
121
ccii
"Former are feminine"; cf. Span. prov. "Palabras hembras son hechos machos." Howell, "Fam. Letters", quotes the saying as Italian; cf. my edition, p. 270 and "n". Herbert also gives it in his "Jacula Prudentum".
"Eminent deeds endure". Schop. has characteristically expressed his dissent by annotating his own copy of the "Orculo" at this point with a pithy "vale el contrario."
122
cciv
"Attempt easy Tasks as if they were difficult". Approved by Mr. Morley, "Aphorisms".
133
ccxx
"If you cannot", etc. There may be here a reference to Lysander's saying in Plutarch: "If the lion's skin [of Hercules] is not long enough, we must stitch on to it a fox's skin.
p. 194
133
ccxxi
"They are always on the point of some stupidity"--omitted by Schop.
134
\"meet with them easily"--Orig. "Encuentranse con gran facilidad y rompen con infelicidad."
ccxxii
"Reserve is proof"; cf. clxxix.
135
ccxxiii
"more defects"--so Orig. "Que son mas defectos que diferencias."
ccxxiv
"taken by the blade"; cf. lxxxiv.
136
ccxxv
"Know your chief Fault"; cf. xxxiv.
137
ccxxvii
"new casks"; cf. the Span. prov. "A la vasija nueva dura el resabio."
143
ccxxxvii
"share pears"--Orig. "Pensar partir peras y partir piedras." Schop. "Man glaubt Kirschen mit ihnen zu essen, wird aber nur die steine erhalten."
144
ccxxxviii
"communicates his secret"; cf. Span. prov. "A quien dizes poridad esse tu das la liberdad," neither tell secrets nor listen to them--Eng. I. puts it rather neatly: "Tis a maxim for secrets Neither to hear them nor to tell them"; cf. the maxim of the Seven Sages, ap. Stobaeus, Flor. iii. 80: "Tell none a secret."
ccxxxviii
"something wanting"; cf. xxxiv, ccxxv.
145
ccxl
"Speak to each"; cf. Prov. xxvi. 5, "Answer a fool according to his folly."
146
ccxlii
"Everything stops"--Orig. "Todo para en parar." Schop. omits.
149
ccxlvi
"To excuse oneself"--Orig. "El escusarse antes de ocasion es culparse"; cf. Fr. prov. "Qui s'excuse s'accuse."
150
ccli
"Use human Means", etc.; cf. "Human wit ought to be exhausted before we presume to invoke Divine interposition" (B. Disraeli, "Tancred").
p. 195
152
cclii
"berth and burthen"--Orig. "Renuncie el cargo con la carga." The story goes that an old woman met Hadrian with a petition. He repulsed her, saying he had no time. "Then give up your berth," retorted the beldam. Hadrian recognised the justice of the rebuke and decided the petition on the spot.
"slaves of all"; cf. "Men in great Place are thrice servants" (Bacon, Essay "Of Great Place"). There is something like this in "El Criticon", i. 7.
ccliii
"Do not Explain overmuch"; cf. "Let the wise be warned against too great readiness of explanation" (G. Eliot, "Middlemarch").
"do not esteem what they understand"; cf.--
\"Was man nicht weiss, das eben brauchte man,
Und was man weiss kann man nicht brauchen."
Goethe, Faust, Th. I.
153
\"venerate the unknown"; cf. "Omne ignotum pro magnifico."
ccliv
"they never come alone"; cf. Span. prov. "ap". "Don Quixote", i. 28, "Un mal llama otro," and Shakespeare, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions, Hamlet", iv. 5.
\"Do not wake Misfortune"; cf. Span. prov. "Quando la mala Fortuna se duerme, nadie la despierte."
"One slip is a little thing"; cf. Stevenson, "Dr. Jekyll".
158
cclxii
"The things we remember best are those better forgotten".--quoted by Mr. Morley in "Aphorisms".
159
cclxiv
"Have no careless Days". D'Artagnan acts on this principle in keeping always on guard over the king during journeys. "Vicomte de Bragelonne", c. xii.
p. 196
160
cclxv
"The Great Captain"--Orig. "El gran Capitan," a reference to Gonsalvo de Cordova (1443-1515), who commanded the Spanish land forces against Chas. VIII. in Italy, and received his title "el gran Capitan" July 1496.
161
cclxvii
"Silken Words". Parysatis, mother of the younger Cyrus, advised one who was about to have an audience with a king to use words wrapped in fine linen; cf. Paley, "Greek Wit", i. No. 152.
\"mouth full of sugar"; cf. "contra" Spurgeon's "John Ploughman's Talk", "Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you down."
cclxviii
"Wise does at once"; cf. Span. prov. "Lo que hace el loco la postre, hace sabio al principio (quoted by Trench, "Proverbs"5, 116).
163
cclxxi
"Let little knowledge"--Orig. "A poco saber camino real."
164
cclxxiii
"If a man laughs always"--Orig. "Conosca al que siempre rie por falto y al que nunca por falso."
166
cclxxvi
"At twenty"; cf. the ages in "Ethics of the Jewish Fathers", ed. C. Taylor, p. 111; L. Lw, "Die Lebensalter", p. 22 and "n".; and Shakespeare in "As You Like It".
cclxxvii
From "El Discreto", c. xii.
168
cclxxix
"comes from cunning"; cf. ccxiii.
169
cclxxxi
"you cannot make a meal"--Orig. "Porque regueldos de aristas no alientan." Schop. omits.
170
cclxxxii
"ridiculous"
"result"--Orig. "Ridiculo parto de los mantes," a reference to Horace's "Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."
p. 197
171
cclxxxv
"Never die"--Schop. adds to his copy "y mucho menos de necedad y ruindad agena."
172
cclxxxvi
"you can do more good"; cf. clxxxvii; cf. "Power to doe good is the true and lawfull end of Aspiring" (Bacon, "Of Great Place").
173
cclxxxviii
"steering by the wind". The derangement of metaphors is mine; orig. has simply "En portarse la ocasion."
174
ccxci
"The care of the wise", etc.--Orig. "Compita la atencion del juyzioso can la detencion del recatado."
176
ccxcv
From "El Discreto", c. xix.
177
ccxcvi
"Noble qualities make noblemen"--Orig. "Las primeras hazen los primeros hombres."
179
ccc
"Three HHH's"--Orig. "Tres eses hazen dichoso, Santo, Sano y Sabio." Schop. "Drei Dinge die in Spanischen mit einem S anfangen machen glcklich --Heiligkeit, Gesundheit, and Weisheit." M.G.D. "Three SSS render a man happy, Sanctity, Soundness of body, and Sageness."
The End
\"Printed in Great Britain by" R. & R. Clark, Limited, \"Edinburgh".
