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2029. Il a inventé l'histoire. (Fr.) Mme. du Deffand.—He has invented history.

A friend defending Voltaire's historical accuracy in the presence of Mme. du Deffand, and maintaining that he invented nothing, 'Rien," repliquait-elle, "et que voulez-vous donc de plus? Il a inventé l'histoire !"-Fournier, L'Esprit dans l'histoire, 191.

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2030. 11 a la tête près du bonnet. (Fr.) Prov.-His head is near his cap. Soon angry.

2031. Il a le diable au corps. (Fr.)—The deuce is in him.

2032. Il a le verbe haut.

tone.

(Fr.)—He talks big. Assumes a high

2033. Il a le vin mauvais. (Fr.)-He is quarrelsome over his cups. 2034. Il a mangé son pain blanc le premier. (Fr.)—He has eaten his white bread first. He had the best of his life first. 2035. Il arrive comme Mars en Carème. (Fr.) Prov.-He arrives like March in Lent. An opportune arrival.

2036. Il a travaillé, il a travaillé pour le roi-de Prusse. (Fr.)— He has worked, he has worked for the King-of Prussia. Sung in Paris of Marshal Soubise, after the defeat of Rossbach by Frederick the Great in 1757. Hence travailler pour le roi de Prusse means to labour in vain. 2037. Il buon mercato vuota la borsa. (It.)-Great bargains

empty the purse.

2038. Il buono è buono, ma il meglio vince. (It.) Prov.-Good is good, but better gains the day.

2039. Il connaît l'univers et ne se connaît pas. (Fr.)

La Font. 8, 26. He knows the whole world yet does not know himself.

Cf. Il meurt connu de tous et ne se connaît pas (Addition à la vie et aux œuvres de Vauquelain des Yvetaux, 1856, p. 12).-He dies known by all, and yet unknown to himself. But the source is older still, see Sic quum transierint, etc.

2040. Il coute peu à amasser beaucoup de richesse, et beaucoup à en amasser peu. (Fr.)-It costs little trouble to amass a great deal of wealth, but great labour to amass a little. The first thousand, it is said, is more difficult of collection than the last hundred thousand.

2011. Il dînoit de l'autel et soupoit du théâtre

Le matin catholique et le soir idolâtre. (Fr.) C. Remy?

The Priest-Dramatist.

The altar finds dinner, and supper the theatre;
A Catholick by day, and at night an idolater.

2042. Il dolce far niente. (It.)? The sweet occupation of doing nothing. Cf. Illud jucundum nil agere. (L.) Plin. Sec. Ep. 8, 9.-That pleasant doing of nothing.

2043. Il donne des entrailles à tous les mots. (Fr.) Said by Joubert of Rousseau.-He gives bowels of feeling to all the words he uses. (Mr M. Arnold trans., Essay on Criticism.)

2044. Il en est pour les choses littéraires comme pour les choses d'argent on ne prête qu'aux riches. (Fr.) Ed. Fournier, L'Esprit des autres, p. 15.-It is the same in literary as in pecuniary matters: one only lends to the rich. fine line, unknown, is, e.g., immediately set down to Shakespeare.

2045. Il est aisé d'ajouter aux inventions d'autres.

A

(Fr.) ?—It is easy to add to the inventions of others. 2046. Il est avis à vieille vache quelle ne fût oncques veau. (Fr.) Prov.-The old cow is under the impression that she never was a calf. People forget that they were once young and foolish like the rest.

2047. Il est beau qu'un mortel jusques aux cieux s'élève,

Il est beau même d'en tomber. (Fr.) Quinault, Phaéton, 4, 2. It is a fine thing for a mortal to lift himself up into the skies, fine even to fall from thence. Thus Phaethon speaks of his own disaster in terms which might be applied to some of our modern aeronauts.

2048. Il est bien aisé à ceux qui se portent bien de donner des avis aux malades. (Fr.) Prov.-It is easy enough for those who are well to give advice to the sick.

2049. Il est bien difficile de garder un trésor dont tous les hommes ont la clef. (Fr.) Trésor du Monde, Paris, 1565.—It is very difficult to guard a treasure of which all men have the key. Dictum quoddam de Virginitate.

Cf. Difficile custoditur quod plures amant. (L.) Prov.-It is difficult to guard what many are in love with.

2050. Il est comme l'oiseau sur la branche. (Fr.)—He is like a bird upon the branch. Unsettled, ever flitting and changing.

2051. Il est des nœuds secrets, il est des sympathies

Dont, par le doux rapport, les âmes assorties
S'attachent l'une à l'autre, et se laissent piquer
Par ce je-ne-sais quoi qu'on ne peut expliquer.

P

(Fr.) Corn. Rodogune, 1, 7.

Ties are there, secret ties and sympathies
Uniting souls in sweet affinities

Each to each other, and strangely thrilling

With those emotions that are past the telling.-Ed.

2052. Il est difficile de décider si l'irrésolution rend l'homme plus malheureux que méprisable; de même s'il y a toujours plus d'inconvénient à prendre un mauvais parti, qu'à n'en prendre aucun. (Fr.) La Bruy. Car. vol. ii. p. 18.-It is difficult to say whether a want of decision renders a man the more unhappy or the more despicable; also whether it is productive of worse consequences to embrace a falling cause, or to hold aloof altogether.

2053. Il est plus aisé d'être sage pour les autres, que pour soimême. (Fr.) La Rochef. Max. p. 47, § 132.—It is easier to be wise for others, than for ourselves.

2054. Il est plus honteux de se défier de ses amis que d'en être trompé. (Fr.) La Rochef. Max. p. 42, § 84.-It is more discreditable to be suspicious of our friends, than to be deceived by them.

2055. Il est souvent plus court et plus utile de cadrer aux autres, que de faire que les autres s'ajustent à nous. (Fr.) La Bruy. Car. vol. i. p. 91.-It is often more easy and more convenient to suit ourselves to others, than to make others adapt their opinions to our own.

2056. Il fait un vent à décorner les bœufs. (Fr.) Prov.—It blows hard enough to wrench the horns off cattle.

2057. Il faut attendre le boiteux. (Fr.) Prov.-We must wait for the lame. We must adapt our communications to the level of those with whom we have to do.

2058. Il faut avaler bien de la fumée aux lampes avant que de devenir bon orateur. (Fr.)—A man must swallow much lamp-smoke before he can be a good orator.

2059. Il faut avoir pitié des morts. (Fr.) V. Hugo, La Prière pour tous. One must have pity on the dead.

2060. Il faut craindre ses ennemis de loin pour ne plus les craindre de près, et se réjouir à leur approche. (Fr.) Bossuet, Fun. or. of Louis de Bourbon.-It is best to fear one's enemies at a distance, so as not to have to fear them when near, and to be able to rejoice at their approach. B. is here quoting the Prince de Conde's own words.

2061. Il faut en affrontant l'orage

Penser, vivre et mourir en roi. (Fr.) Frederic II. to Volt.-I must in the face of the storm think, live, and die as becomes a king. Written three days before the battle of Merseburg when the fate of Prussia was trembling in the balance.

2062. Il faut de plus grandes vertus pour soutenir la bonne fortune que la mauvaise. (Fr.)-Greater virtue is necessary to support a turn of good fortune than of bad.

2063. Il faut hurler avec les loups. (Fr.) Prov.-You must howl if you are in wolves' company.

2064. Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée. (Fr.) Brueis and Palaprat, Grondeur.—A door must either be open or shut. Said on any occasion where there is only one alternative. The thing must be one way or the

other.

In the play the servant (Lolive) says, "Oh ça, monsieur, quand
vous serez sorti, voulez-vous que je laisse la porte ouverte ?
M. Grichard. Non. L. Voulez-vous que je la tienne fermée?
M. G. Te tairas-tu?

M. G. Non. L. Si faut-il monsieur

.

L. Monsieur, je me ferais hâcher: il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée, choisissez, comment la voulez-vous?"

2065. Il faut savoir s'ennuyer. (Fr.)-One must learn to be bored. V. Lady Bloomfield's Diplomatic Life of her husband, vol. i.

2066. Il fuoco non s'estingue con fuoco. (It.) Prov.-Fire is not extinguished by fire.

2067. Il fût historien, pour rester orateur. (Fr.) H. Taine ?— He turned historian, in order to remain an orator.

Said of Livy in reference to the political speeches which, as he could not deliver them himself, he put into the mouths of personages of Roman history. Unable to get a seat in Parliament, Mr Anthony Trollope uttered his political sentiments in his novels (see his Autobiography and Phineas Finn).

2068. Ilicet infandum cuncti contra omina bellum,

Contra fata deum, perverso numine poscunt.

(L.) Virg. A. 7, 583.

'Gainst omens flashed before their eyes,

'Gainst warnings thundered from the skies,

They cry for war.-Conington.

Applicable to any rash, ill-advised war, such as the

French attack on Prussia of 1870.

2069. Illæso lumine solem. (L.)-(To gaze at) the sun with undimmed eye. Eagles are said to possess this quality. Motto of the Earl of Rosslyn.

2070. Illa est agricolæ messis iniqua suo. (L.) Ov. Her. 12, 48.-That is a harvest which pays the labourer badly. A losing game: a bad trade.

2071. Illa laus est, magno in genere et in divitiis maxumis,

Liberos hominem educare, generi monimentum et sibi. (L.) Plaut. Mil. 3, 1, 109.—It is some honour to a man of good birth and great wealth, to bring up his children so as to be a credit both to his family and to himself. 2072. Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia flectit, Componit furtim, subsequiturque decor.

Sulpicia.

(L.) Tibull. 4, 2, 8.

Whate'er she does, where'er her steps she bends,
Grace on each action silently attends. (?)

2073. Illa placet tellus in

qua res parva beatum

Me facit, et tenues luxuriantur opes. (L.) Mart. 10, 96, 5.-That spot of earth pleases me, where small means produce happiness, and where moderate wealth abounds.

2074. Illa vox vulgaris, Audivi. (L.) Cic. Planc. 23, 57.—That common saying, "I heard" so and so.

2075. Ille dies primus leti primusque malorum

Causa fuit. (L.) Virg. A. 4, 169.-That day was the beginning of death and disaster.

2076. Ille igitur nunquam direxit brachia contra

Torrentem; nec civis erat qui libera posset

Verba animi proferre, et vitam impendere vero.

The time-server.

He therefore never boldly tried

To swim against the current's tide;
Nor he the man to give free vent

To his unfettered sentiment,

Or, throwing policy far hence,

(L.) Juv. 4, 90.

To stake his life in truth's defence.-Ed.

This is your safe man who is never guilty of indiscreet verities and always contrives to be in with the winning side as, in fact, Crispus did; and, as Juvenal goes on to say, lived to see fourscore years even at the Court of Domitian. Last three words of Latin adopted as motto by J. J. Rousseau.

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