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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 1001

 
 
Miscellaneous Translations. (continued)
 
9689
    Leave no stone unturned. 1
9690
    Let it be. Let it pass. 2
9691
    Medicine for the soul. 3
9692
    Nothing is changed in France; there is only one Frenchman more. 4
9693
    Order reigns in Warsaw. 5
9694
    Ossa on Pelion. 6
 
Note 1.
Euripides: Heracleidæ, 1002.

This may be traced to a response of the Delphic oracle given to Polycrates, as the best means of finding a treasure buried by Xerxes’ general, Mardonius, on the field of Platæa. The oracle replied, [greek], “Turn every stone.”—Leutsch and Schneidewin: Corpus Paræmiographorum Græcorum, vol. i. p. 146. [back]
Note 2.
This phrase, “Laissez faire, laissez passer!” is attributed to Gournay, Minister of Commerce at Paris, 1751; also to Quesnay, the writer on political economy. It is quoted by Adam Smith in the “Wealth of Nations.” [back]
Note 3.
Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes.—Diodorus Siculus: i. 49, 3. [back]
Note 4.
According to the “Contemporary Review,” February, 1854, this phrase formed the opening of an address composed in the name of Comte d’Artois by Count Beugnot, and published in the “Moniteur,” April 12, 1814. [back]
Note 5.
General Sebastiani announced the fall of Warsaw in the Chamber of Deputies, Sept. 16, 1831: “Des lettres que je reçois de Pologne m’annoncent que la tranquillité règne à Varsovie.”—Dumas: Mémoires, Second Series, vol. iv. chap. iii. [back]
Note 6.
See Ovid, Quotation 3.

They were setting on
Ossa upon Olympus, and upon
Steep Ossa leavy Pelius.
George Chapman: Homer’s Odyssey, book xi. 426.

Heav’d on Olympus tott’ring Ossa stood;
On Ossa Pelion nods with all his wood.
Alexander Pope: Odyssey, book xi. 387.

Ossa on Olympus heave, on Ossa roll
Pelion with all his woods; so scale the starry pole.
Sotheby: Odyssey, book xi. 315.

To the Olympian summit they essay’d
To heave up Ossa, and to Ossa’s crown
Branch-waving Pelion.
William Cowper Odyssey, book xi. 379.

They on Olympus Ossa fain would roll;
On Ossa Pelion’s leaf-quivering hill.
Worsley: Odyssey, book xi. 414.

To fling
Ossa upon Olympus, and to pile.
Pelion with all its growth of leafy woods
On Ossa.
Bryant: Odyssey, book xi. 390.

Ossa they pressed down with Pelion’s weight,
And on them both impos’d Olympus’ hill.
Fitz-Geffrey: The Life and Death of Sir Francis Drake, stanza 99 (1596).

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam.—Virgil: Georgics, i. 281. [back]