Rabelais, _Gargantua_, Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p. 136, ed. Variorum.
Paris, 1823. 8vo.)

This proverb had been previously used by Amyot, and probably also
by Jerome le (or de) Hangest, who was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and
adversary of Luther, and who died in 1538.--Ibid. p. 136 (_note_ 49.).

* * * * *

I know not how old may be "to put the cart before the horse." Rabelais
(i. 227.) has--

"Il mettoyt la charrette devant les beufz."

* * * * *

"If the sky falls, we shall catch larks."

Rabelais (i. 229, 230.):--

"Si les nues tomboyent, esperoyt prendre alouettes."

* * * * *

"Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine."

Pope's _Essay on Criticism_, pp. 524, 525.

* * * * *