Note 28 — Feast of the Second New Year.

Mr. Rogers has “The soul of the fool thou canst purchase for little.” Perhaps the sense is “God grants life to the fool on hard terms.” Erskine has “To serve a fool is hard indeed.” Possibly the literal meaning is “You buy the soul of the fool at a high price,” that is, it costs a great deal to win him over. Elliot had what is probably the best rendering, “Barbarous characters should be treated with severity”; though in Elliot, vi, 310, the translation is, “The life of fools is held very cheap in troublous times.” ↑