The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

PROFITABLE STORIES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNED MEN. 6/
"in his garments;" now by those words he referred
to
lice.
CCLVII. Another learned man used to say,
"Honour-
"able praise is that the man to whom thou hast done
"no good thing should praise thee,
and veritable abuse,
"likewise, is that he to whom thou hast never done
"harm should abuse thee."
CCLVIIL Another learned man said, "A man is
"wholly at ease until his teeth become worn out or he
"be sick."
CCLIX. Another learned man said, "I wish to be
"considered before God as one of the excellent ones
"of men, and before myself as one of the abjects of
"the children of men, and before men as one among
"them who is neither good nor bad; for the exalted
"are eaten up by care, and the abjects are wasted
"away by hunger."
CCLX. Another learned man said,
"There are three
"classes of men who are not destitute of advantage:
"—He that teacheth being hired for wages, and he
"that hireth to learn excellence, and he who being
"the equal of his pupil in knowledge merely calleth to mind
"what he hath learnt; but the man who wisheth to
"learn whilst pretending to teach is remote from any
"advantage whatsoever."
CCLXI. Another learned man said, "He that med-
"itateth upon a learned life, having no need so to do,
"should not be deprived of the benefit thereof when he
"hath need of it."
CCLXII. Another learned man said,
"A good woman
"is like a raven with white legs," that is to say, she
cannot be found.
CCLXIII. Another learned man was asked, "Who
l2