was obliged to confess, 'that a man might be ignorant of the
author of this well-known couplet without being absolutely a
fool.'"

I have also the following memorandum in a common-place book of mine, but
I do not remember from what source I transcribed it many years past:--

"The couplet, thus erroneously ascribed to the author of
_Hudibras_, occurs in a small volume of Miscellaneous Poems, by
Sir John Mennis, written in the reign of Charles the Second,
which has now become extremely scarce. The original of the
couplet may, however, be traced to much higher authority, even
to Demosthenes, who has the following expression:-- {211}

'[Greek: Anaer ho pheugon kai palin machaesetai]',

of which the lines are almost a literal translation."

While on the subject of quotations, let me ask whether any of your
correspondents can tell me where the passage, "Providence tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb," is to be found?

Among a few of the many floating quotable passages universally known,
without any trace of the authors, among general readers and writers, are
the following:--

"When wild in woods the noble savage ran."

DRYDEN's _Conquest of Grenada_.