“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
That is the sixth verse of the seventh chapter of Matthew.
Of the passage John Wyclif wrote in 1380: “Dus (Thus) comaundeth crist bat men schullen not yeve (give) holy bingis to hondis (hounds) & putten precious perles to hoggis.”
That is, grandmother, don’t bequeath the most revered among your treasured antiques to a daughter or daughter-in-law who cares only for modernistic decor, and, granddad, no matter how generous your instincts, you are merely casting pearls before swine in giving your six-year-old grandson a set of ivory chessmen at Christmas, rather than lead Indians.
Related Posts
-
How Do You Tell Real Pearls From Imitation Pearls By Rubbing Them On Your Teeth?
Natural pearls and cultured pearls feel slightly rough or gritty when brushed lightly on the front teeth. Imitation pearls are glassy-smooth, or plastic-smooth, to the bite. The tooth test does not work as…
-
How does a jewel thief know whether a string of pearls is real and worth stealing?
There may be more than one way to tell if a string of pearls is real, but the great Arthur Barry, a big time thief in the twenties who averaged half a million…
-
Why Do Clouds Darken To a Very Deep Grey Just Before It Is About To Rain or Before a Heavy Thunderstorm?
Clouds darken from a pleasant fluffy white just before rain begins to fall because they absorb more light. Clouds normally appear white when the light which strikes them is scattered by the small…
-
Where does the expression “before one can say Jack Robinson” come from and What does it mean?
The phrase "before one can say Jack Robinson" means in a couple of shakes, two shakes of a lamb's tail, or, in plain English, immediately, with no loss of time. The expression arose…
-
What Does “Before the Mast” Mean and Where Did the Nautical Expression Come From?
In his book Two Years Before the Mast, the American lawyer and author Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) reveals his experiences as a young man at sea aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834. The…
-
What Does the Expression “Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch” Mean and Where Did it Originate?
The expression "Don't count your chickens" is a commonly used saying similar to New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra's warning that "it ain't over till it's over." First written in the sixth century…
