Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1883 — Common Errors. [ARTICLE]

Common Errors.

“God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb,” was long attributed to the psalms of David, until oft-repeated corrections have convinced people that the sentiment belongs to Maria in Laurence Sterne's “Sentimental Journey.” The epigram, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” is still often quoted as one of the proverbs of Solomon, and is rarely attributed to its author, Butler, (see “Hudibras,” part 11., canto 2, line 843). The nearest approach to any such plwase to be found iu the Bible is the text, “He who spareth the rod hateth his son.” (Prov. xiii. 24). The reference to “pouring oil on the troubled- waters” is often supposed to be scriptural, though the Bible does not make any such allusion. “Man wants but little here below,” is an expression no older than Goldsmith’s “Hermit,” though it is generally quoted either as scripture or from a line of an ancient hymn. “Mansions of the blest” are mentioned in the Revelations, not of St. John the Divine but to the monk of Eversham (A. D. 1496).— A1l the Year Round. A mukioh professor has invented a bracelet that will remedy the affliction known as “writer’s cramp.” The penholder is fastened to the bracelet in such a manner that it can be used to write with ease and without bringing the fingers into use at all. The hand can rest on the table, moving easily along as the letters are traced, and it is said that little practice is required to rive expression in the use of the invention