The common proverb, "He hath sown his wild
oats," needs no comment; and the inclination of evil to override good is
embodied in various adages, such, as, "The weeds o'ergrow the corn,"
while the tenacity with which evil holds its ground is further expressed
in such sayings as this--"The frost hurts not weeds." The poisonous
effects, again, of evil is exemplified thus--"One ill-bred mars a whole
pot of pottage," and the rapidity with which it spreads has, amongst
other proverbs, been thus described, "Evil weeds grow apace." Speaking
of weeds in their metaphorical sense, we may quote one further adage
respecting them:--
"A weed that runs to seed
Is a seven years' weed."
And the oft-quoted phrase, "It will be a nosegay to him as long as he
lives," implies that disagreeable actions, instead of being lost sight
of, only too frequently cling to a man in after years, or, as Ray says,
"stink in his nostrils." The man who abandons some good enterprise for a
worthless, or insignificant, undertaking is said to "cut down an oak and
plant a thistle," of which there is a further version, "to cut down an
oak and set up a strawberry." The truth of the next adage needs no
comment--"Usurers live by the fall of heirs, as swine by the droppings
of acorns.
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