They did so and he went to the one side of the
bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sacke, and did shake out all his
meale into the river. Now, neighbours, said the mall, how much meale is
there in my sacke now? Marry, there is none at all, said they. Now, by
my faith, said he, even as much wit as in your two heads, to strive for
that thing you have not. Which was the wisest of all these three
persons, judge you?"
4. Tom Coryat, in an oration to the Duke of York (afterwards Chas. I.),
called _Crambe, or Colwarts twice sodden_ (London, 1611), has this
passage:--
"I came to Venice, and quickly took a survey of the whole model of the
city, together with the most remarkable matters thereof; and shortly
after any arrival in England I overcame any adversaries in the Town of
Evill, in my native county of Somersetshire, who thought to have sunk
me in a bargain of pilchards, as the _wise men of Gottam_ went about to
drown an eel."
5. Dr. More's _Antidote against Atheism_, cap. ii. Sec. 14.:
"But because so many bullets joggled together in a man's hat will
settle a determinate figure, or because the frost and wind will draw
upon doors and glass windows pretty uncouth streaks like feathers and
other fooleries which are to no use or purpose, try infer thence, that
all the contrivances that are in nature, even the frame of the bodies,
both of men and beasts, are from no other principle but the jumbling
together of the matter, and so because that this doth naturally effect
something, that is the cause of all things, seems to me to be reasoning
in the same mood and figure with that wise market man's, who, going
down a hill and carrying his cheeses under his arms, one of them
falling and trundling down the hill very fast, let the other go after
it appointing them all to meet him at his house at _Gotham_, not
doubting but they beginning so hopefully, would be able to make good
the whole journey; or like another of the same town, who perceiving
that his iron trevet he had bought had three feet, and could stand,
expected also that it should walk too, and save him the labour of the
carriage.
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