2543. La jeunesse vit d'espérance, la vieillesse de souvenir. (Fr.) -Youth lives on hope, old age on remembrance.

2544. La langue des femmes est leur épée, et elles ne la laissent pas rouiller. (Fr.) Prov.-The tongue of a woman is her sword, and she does not let it rust.

2545. La légalité nous tue. (Fr.)-We are being killed by legality. M. Viennet in the Chamber of Deputies, 1833.

2546. La libéralité consiste moins à donner beaucoup, qu'à donner à-propos. (Fr.) La Bruy. Car. vol. i. cap. 4, p. 70.Liberality consists less in giving profusely, than in giving seasonably.

2547. La liberté, convive aimable,

Met les deux coudes sur la table. (Fr.) Volt. ?—Liberty, amiable guest, places both her elbows upon the table. Free and easy.

2548. La lingua batte dove la dente duole.

tongue strikes where the tooth aches.

(It.) Prov.-The

2549. L'Allégorie habite un palais diaphane. (Fr.) Lemierre, Peinture, ch. 3.-Allegory inhabits a transparent palace. 2550. La loi de l'univers est: Malheur aux vaincus ! (Fr.) Saurin, Spartacus.-Woe to the conquer'd is the law of the world. An expansion of the famous Væ victis (q.v.)

of Brennus.

2551. La maladie sans maladie.

(Fr.)-The disease without

disease. Hypochondria, vapours.

2552. La marque d'un mérite extraordinaire est de voir que ceux qui l'envient le plus, sont contraints de le louer. (Fr.)? -The sign of any extraordinary excellence is to observe how those who regard it with the most envious eyes, are obliged to speak in its praise.

2553. La mémoire est une muse, on plutôt, c'est la mère des muses que Ronsard fait parler ainsi :

Grèce est notre pays, mémoire est notre mère.

(Fr.) Chateaubriand-Memory is a Muse in herself, or rather the mother of the Muses whom Ronsard represents saying,

Greece is our country, Memory is our Mother.

2554. L'âme n'a pas de secret que la conduite ne révèle. (Fr.) Prov.-There is no secret in the heart which our actions do not disclose.

2555. L'ami des Tyrans est l'ennemi du genre humain. (Fr.) Linguet. The friend of tyrants is the common enemy of mankind. The author was condemned to the guillotine (1794), with this quotation from his own writings attached to his sentence.

2556. La mode est un Tyran dont rien nous délivre,
A son bizarre goût il faut s'accommoder,
Mais sous ses folles lois étant forcé de vivre,
Le sage n'est jamais le premier à la suivre,
Ni le dernier à la garder.

The tyranny of fashion.

(Fr.) Pavillon?

A tyrant is fashion whom none can escape,

To his whimsical fancies our tastes we must shape:
We are forced to conform to the mode, it is true,

But it's never the wise who first follow the new,
Nor the last who abandon the old.-Ed.

2557. La moitié du monde prend plaisir à médire, et l'autre moitié Prov.-One half of the

à croire les médisances.

(Fr.)

world take delight in uttering slander, and the other half

in believing it.

2558. La moltiplicità delle leggi e dei medici in un paese sono egualmente segni di malore di quello. (It.)-A multi

plicity of laws and of physicians in any country are proofs alike of its bad state.

2559. La monnoie de M. de Turenne. (Fr.) Mme. Cornuel.Turenne's small change. Said of the ten generals who

vainly endeavoured to fill the place of the great French commander after his death at Satzbach, 1675.

2560. La moquerie est souvent indigence d'esprit. (Fr.) La Bruy. Car. vol. i. p. 93.—Derision is frequently a sign of lack of wit.

2561. La mort est plus aisée à supporter sans y penser, que la pensée de la mort sans péril. (Fr.) Pasc. Pens. 31, 3. -Death itself is less painful to bear when it comes upon us unawares, than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant.

2562. La mort ne surprend point le sage;

Il est toujours prêt à partir,

S'étant su lui-même avertir

Du temps où l'on se doit résoudre à ce passage.
La Font. 8, 1.-Death never takes the wise unawares, since

(Fr.)

he is always ready to depart; having learnt to anticipate the time when he must perforce make this last journey.

2563. La mort ravit tout sans pudeur. (Fr.) La Font. 8, 1.— Unblushing death ravishes everything.

2564. La mouche du coche. (Fr.) Prov.-The fly of the coach. Taken from La Fontaine's fable (7, 9), signifying a busybody, who thinks that fussing-about is the same thing as being really useful.

2565. L'amour apprend aux ânes de danser. (Fr.) Prov.-Love teaches even asses to dance.

2566. L'amour de la justice n'est, en la plus part des hommes, que la crainte de souffrir l'injustice. (Fr.) La Rochef. Max. 78, p. 41.—The love of justice in the majority of mankind, is nothing else than the dread of suffering injustice from others.

2567. L'amour est le roman du cœur,

Et le plaisir en est l'histoire.

(Fr.) M. de Bièvre.

Love is the heart's romance, pleasure is its history.

2563. L'amour et la fumée ne peuvent se cacher. (Fr.) Prov. -Love and smoke cannot be hid.

2569. L'amour-propre est le plus grand de tous les flatteurs. (Fr.)-Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

2570. L'amour-propre offensé ne pardonne jamais. (Fr.) Vigée, Aveux Diff.-Wounded self-love never forgives.

2571. L'amour soumet la terre, assujetit les cieux,
Les rois sont à ses pieds, il gouverne les dieux.

(Fr.) Corn.?

Love conquers the earth, and Love conquers the sky,
Kings lies at his feet, and the Gods own his sway.-Ed.

2572. La moutarde après le dîner. (Fr.)-Mustard when dinner is over. A day after the fair.

2573. La moutarde lui monte au nez. (Fr.) Prov.—The mustard gets into his nose. A peppery fellow.

2574. La naissance n'est rien où la vertu n'est pas. (Fr.) Mol. Festin de Pierre, 4.—Birth is nothing without virtue.

2575. La nation française n'oublie pas ses enfants célèbres, même lorsqu'ils sonts morts à l'étranger. (Fr.)-The French nation does not forget its illustrious children, even when they die in a foreign land. Inscription on Claude Lorraine's tomb in the Church of Trinita dei Monti, in Rome.

2576. La nation ne fait pas corps en France; elle réside toute entière dans la personne du roy. (Fr.)-The nation, in France, is not a body politic, being comprised complete and entire in the person of the king. MS. composed

by the order of Louis XIV. for the instruction of the Dauphin, Duke of Burgundy.

2577. Langage des halles. (Fr.)-The slang of the fish-markets.

Anglicè, "Billingsgate."

2578. L'anime triste di coloro

Che visser senza infamia, e senza lodo.

(It.) Dante, Inf. 3, 36.

The wretched souls of those, who lived

Without or praise or blame.-Cary.

Dante places these characterless souls just within the gate of Hell.

2579. L'antipode du bon sens.

sense.

2580. La nuit porte conseil.

(Fr.)-The antipodes of common

(Fr.) Prov.-The night is a good

counsellor. Sleep upon it.

2581. La nuit tous chats sont gris. (Fr.) Prov.-At night all The dark hides defects.

cats are grey.

2582. Là ou ailleurs. (Fr.)-There or elsewhere. Motto of De Kergariou (Brittany).

2583. La parole a été donnée à l'homme pour déguiser sa pensée. (Fr.)-Speech has been given to man to conceal his thoughts.

Harel, in the Siècle of August 21, 1846, attributes the sentiment
to Talleyrand, but it occurs in Voltaire (Dial. xiv.):
"Ils ne se
servent de la pensée que pour autorizer leurs injustices, et n'em-
ployent les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.” Cf. also Cam-
pistron, Pompeia, 2, 5: Le cœur sent rarement ce que le bouche
exprime.It is rare for the mouth to utter the heart's true sentiments.
Young († 1765) had still earlier (1725) written in his Satire, Uni-
versal Passion, The Love of Fame, 207:

Where Nature's end of language is declined,
And men talk only to conceal the mind.

Büchmann (Gefl. W. p. 379) points out a distich from Dion. Cato,
4, 26:

Perspicito tecum tacitus quid quisque loquatur.

Sermo hominum mores et celat et indicat idem. (L.)
Consider inwardly what each man says:

His talk both hides and shows man's secret ways. -Ed.

2584. La patience est amère, mais le fruit en est douce. (Fr.) J. J. Rouss. Patience is bitter, but it yields sweet fruit. Disappointment and suffering is the school of wisdom. 2585. La patience est le remède le plus sûre contre les calomnies : le temps, tôt ou tard, découvre la vérité. (Fr.)? Patience is the most sure remedy for calumny: time, sooner or later, reveals the truth.

2586. La patrie veut être servie, et non pas dominée. (Fr.)--One's country requires to be served and not to be domineered

over.

Saying of Prince Bismarck in conference with Favre on the terms of peace in 1871 (Moritz Busch. vol. ii. p. 279, Eng. tr.). Political consistency often becomes blundering wrongheadedness: one must take wider views and not force one's own private wishes upon the country.

2587. La pauvreté n'est pas un péché,

Mieux vaut cependant la cacher.

Poverty is not a sin;

Still it is best to keep it in.-Ed.

(Fr.) Breton Prov.

2588. La perfection marche lentement, il lui

faut la main du temps. (Fr.) Volt.-Perfection is attained by slow degrees, she requires the hand of time.

2589. La peur est un grand inventeur. (Fr.) Prov.—Fear is a great inventor.

2590. La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés, et des maux à venir; mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle. (Fr.) La Rochef. Max. p. 34, §22.-Philosophy triumphs easily enough over past and future misfortunes, but she is worsted by the misfortunes of the moment.

2591. La plus belle victoire est de vaincre son cœur. (Fr.) La Font. Nymphes de Vaux.-The finest victory is to conquer one's own heart.

2592. La plus part des hommes emploient la première partie de leur vie à rendre l'autre misérable. (Fr.) La Bruy. Car. vol. ii. cap. 11, p. 48.-The generality of men spend the first part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.

2593. La plus part des hommes n'ont pas le courage de corriger les autres, parcequ'ils n'ont pas le courage de souffrir qu'on les corrige. (Fr.)—Most men have not the courage to correct others, because they have not the courage to bear correction themselves.