“PARECEME, SANCHO, QUE NO HAY REFRAN QUE NO
SEA VERDADERO, PORQUE TODOS SON SENTENCIAS
SACADAS DE LA MISMA ESPERIENCIA, MADRE DE LAS
CIENCIAS TODAS."

"I am of opinion, Sancho, that there is no Proverb which
is not true, because they are all sentences drawn from
experience itself, the Mother of all the Sciences."

Don Quixote, Part 1, Cap. 21.

LONDON:

Printed by S. Brooke, 35, Paternoster-Row,

AND SOLD BY

G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA LANE,
LUDGATE STREET.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

SPANISH Proverbs have been long celebrated for their pith and humour. The Spaniards entertain so high an opinion of their merit, that they consider the knowledge of them, and a readiness at introducing them into conversation, as proofs of talent and acuteness.

The following collection was formed at intervals of leisure from my mercantile pursuits, during several years residence in Spain. I had often thought that a publication of them in England, in their present arrangement, would be useful as well as entertaining. The great interest which the late political affairs of that country have excited, has induced me to carry this design into effect. To be conversant in the Spanish language is now considered a literary and a fashionable attainment; it has, in fact, become a necessary study to the British merchant trading with the Spaniards, from the recent increase of our commercial intercourse with those extensive regions where it is universally spoken.

I have paid particular attention to the correctness of the Spanish. The orthography is conformable to the last Edition of the Dictionary, published by the Royal Academy at Madrid. The translations