the spring is not a sufficient direction to make me leave off my clothes, in hope of fine weather, or dress myself up in a volatile air, upon the expectation of a warm summer, for fear of catching a mistake and meeting with a cold reception upon such an over-hasty credulity . . . But this I may positively assert, according to the general opinion of all writers, as well as Sophocles, the Prince of the Tragic Poets; that, as one inhabitant does not make a city, nor one man a multitude, so neither can one silly swallow rationally convince a wise, a cautious or a considerate person of the approach of summer."-OSWALD DYKES, A.D. 1707, Moral Reflections.

"All the false as well as foolish conclusions from a particular to a universal truth, fall under the censure of this proverb. It teaches that as he that guesses at the course of the year by the flight of one single bird, is very liable to be mistaken in his conjecture; so also a man cannot be denominated rich from one single piece of money in his pocket, nor accounted universally good from the practice of one single virtue, nor temperate because he is stout, nor liberal because he is exactly just: that one day cannot render a man completely happy in point of time, nor one action consummate his glory in point of valor. In short the moral of it is, that the right way of judging of things, beyond imposition and fallacy, is not from particulars but universals."-NATHAN BAILEY, A.D. 1721, Diverse Proverbs

"We are but too ready to accept the first isolated sign of success as a proof of its aggregate presence, or forthcoming; whereas any one actual and entire success requires a combination of favorable circumstances-with a sharp sprinkling of unfavorable too, by way of spurs and spices-more numerous and intricate than could ever be present, or even seen after they had occurred."-Household Words, February 28, 1852, Commenting on the Proverb.

"The Greek original of 'One swallow does not make a spring,' which is as old as Aristotle and seems to be the basis of an allusion in Aristophanes, ought to have weight in the question which has found its way into Notes and Queries, whether for 'spring' we ought to read 'summer.' Mrs. Ward in her National Proverbs in Five Languages does not decide the question, though she proves the wide acceptance of the proverb. The difference seems to resolve itself into one of climate. Of the Greek form, another evidence is preserved in a painted vase representing some ladies looking up at a bird, while from the mouth of one of them proceeds a scroll bearing the words, 'See the swallow! It is already spring.""-London Quarterly Review, July, 1868.

"Yes-one foul wind no more makes a winter than one swallow makes a summer. again. Tom Pinch has succeeded.

I'll try it
With his

advice to guide me Imay do the same."-CHARLES DICKENS, A.D. 1812-1870, Martin Chuzzlewit.

"When, wild with delight, I saw a swallow glancing through the sunny springtime air, I ran to tell my father. Can I forget how he too, who had been a 'snapper-up of unconsidered trifles,' seeming not to share in my gladness, looked up and said warningly, 'One swallow does not make a summer.""-LOUISE V. BOYD in Arthur's Magazine, 1873.

"It's surely summer, for there's a swallow:
Come one swallow, his mate will follow,

The bird-race quicken and wheel and thicken." CHRISTINA G. ROSETTI, A.D. 1830-1894, Bird Song.

VARIANT PROVERBS

A single flower or a single swallow does not always announce the Spring. (Armenian).

One actor cannot make a play. (Chinese).

One basket of grapes does not make a vintage. (Italian). One brier does not make a hedge. (Italian).

One cloud does not make a winter.

(Osmanli).

One crow does not make a winter. (German, Dutch). One day of great heat never yet made a summer. (Breton). One devil does not make hell. (Italian).

One finger does not make a hand nor one swallow a summer. (Portuguese).

One flower does not make spring. (Latin, Osmanli).
One flower makes no garland. (English).

One horseman does not raise a dust cloud. (Bannu).
One rain won't make a crop. (Negro-Tide-water section

of Georgia).

One stone does not make a stone wall. (Osmanli.)

One swallow does not make a spring nor one woodcock a winter. (English).

One tree does not make a forest. (Negro-Tide-water section of Georgia).

ALLIED PROVERBS

One dose will not cure nor one feed make fat. (Gaelic). One grain fills not a sack but helps his fellows. (English). One makes not a people-nor a town. (African-Accra). What dust will rise from one horseman. (Bannu).

When one man has his stomach full it cannot satisfy every

man. (Vai-West Africa).

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE

60

The proverb is applied to people who in their endeavor to extricate themselves from one difficulty complicate themselves in another and greater difficulty; or who, laboring under hard conditions, seek relief in an employment where the work is much more severe.

The origin of the saying is not known. It is used in various forms in different parts of the world. In its old Latin form: "Out of the smoke into the flame" it predates the fourth century for we find it quoted by Amianus Marcellinus, the Roman historian. In its Greek form which is the same as the Latin it was used by Lucian the satirical writer in the second century.

The English equivalent-"Out of the frying pan into the fire" seems to have a direct reference to fish that fall into the flame when being cooked. John Heywood (A.D. 1497-1580) wrote:

"I mislike not only your watch in vain,

But also, if ye took him, what could ye gain?
From suspicion to knowledge of ill, forsooth!
Could make ye do but as the flounder doeth-
Leap out of the frying pan into the fire,

And change from ill pain to worse is worth small hire.”