Page:The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, A Roman Slave.djvu/10

 for by supposing that the original was seldom published by itself on account of its brevity; and that it was rarely translated, from the fact that many of the saying derive their pith from the circumstances of their illustrating the character of personages represented in a play. But whether the Edinburgh Reviewers knew much or little of Syrus, matters not. A write whom these Reviewers had never read, who yet furnished their journal with a very appropriate motto, and with whom many of our popular proverbs originated, I here take the liberty to introduce to the people in a free English dress, knowing that if his noble shade is yet cognizant of his literary remains, he will tank me for bringing him before a public more capable of appreciating his good things than a Roman mob, and better able to practice his wiser moral precepts if so disposed, than most of the best of his contemporaries.

I would only bespeak the charity of the reader for the seeming insipidity to be found in some of the Sayings. As these were gleaned, after Syrus's day, from his Mimes or Plays, the compiler of them would be liable to such a mistake as he might make who should attempt to gather from the works of our great English dramatist a complete list of Shakespeare proverbs; that is, he would likely to insert in his collection, many sayings which would be without meaning, except when taken in the proper connection of the play -- and many maxims of doubtful morality, because originally fitted to the mouth of a Shylock, or an Iago.