Proverbs embody the current and practical philosophy of an age or nation.

Prudence is one of the virtues which were called cardinal by the ancient ethical writers.

Common sense is a phrase employed to denote that degree of intelligence, sagacity, and prudence which is common to all men.

The term intellect includes all those powers by which we acquire, retain, and extend our knowledge as perception, memory, imagination, judgment, and the like.

Science is knowledge certain and evident in itself, or by the principles from which it is deducted, or with which it is certainly connected. It is subjective, as existing in the mind objective, as embodied in truths speculative, as leading to do something, as in practical science.

The ideal is to be obtained by selecting and assembling in one whole the beauties and perfections which are usually seen in different individuals, excluding everything defective or unseemly, so as to form a type or model of the species.