“Strike while the Iron is hot,” was a favourite saying of Peter the Great, while an apprentice in a blacksmith’s shop, at Amsterdam. It is one of those proverbial sayings, which speak a word to the ear, but a volume to the understanding—and contain a world of wisdom, condensed within a narrow compass—Thus every art and profession has thrown a gem of the kind, into the public stock, enriching society by some sage maxim and pithy apothegm drawn from its own experience; in which is conveyed, not only the arcana of that individual art or profession, but also the important secret of a prosperous and happy life. “Cut your coat according to your cloth,” says the taylor—“Stick to your last,” cries the cobler—“Make hay while the sun shines,” says the farmer—“Prevention is better than cure,” hints the physician—Surely a man has but to travel through the world, with open ears, and by the time he is grey, he will have all the wisdom of Solomon—and then he has nothing to do but to grow young again, and turn it to the best advantage.
